Breaking news

As March sidles over the horizon with snowdrops in one hand and a bucket of sleet in the other, Spurtle’s Issue 260 brings news of all the latest squalls affecting the barony and beyond.

We kick off with pugilism in high places, and a failure to get to the root of the problem elsewhere. We have word of not-so-jolly green giants leaving our streets, and of African visitors returning to warmer climes.

Stand by for views on planning reform and financially sustainable arts, and a serious blockage that may constipate the city centre for months.

An evening  of talks at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RGBE) next month will cover everything from ‘adhesive for sticking lichens on trees to adventures in the land of the crested macaque’. 

Scientists Sally Eaton, Hannah Atkins and Sadie Barber are among those to appear, and will recount ups and downpours in the rainforests of Scotland’s west coast and Sulawesi. They’ll be looking at RBGE’s research and conservation projects, and its unique working relationship between Science and Horticulture. 

Was it an army or was it knot? 

Possibly, more of an orgy. 

Spurtle can't tell the difference between multiple frogs and multiple toads disporting themselves in the altogether (we lost count at 30), but there was certainly no shortage of amphibian activity in the allotment pond beside East Scotland Street Lane this afternoon.

Is your life encumbered by clutter? 

Do you yearn for the wide open spaces of an IKEA showroom? A world free of unread novels and knick-knacks and hairballs the size of chihuahuas? 

But are you simultaneously incapable of throwing anything away or hoovering? 

One local resident has come up with an ingenious solution: cram everything you don’t want but can’t bear to part with into the back of a car. And the front.

OLD ROYAL HIGH DEVELOPERS MAKE CASE 

The wait is over. 

Duddingston House Properties and Urbanist Hotels’ revised plans for a scaled-down luxury hotel on the old Royal High School site have now been validated and are available online (Ref. 17/0058/FUL).  

That is to say, they were briefly available until the Council's ever-unreliable Planning Portal crashed at lunchtime.

Locals campaigning to stop development of Canonmills Bridge have been hoping that planning permission for the site has lapsed.

Their optimism rested on the premise that, to the layperson's eye, work on the project did not appear to have started within the requisite three years since 8 May 2013. 

In a minutely phrased statement from City of Edinburgh Council today, those hopes were dashed. Planning officials say the developer is entitled to continue with implementation of the consented scheme. 

Around 90 people gathered in the Royal Botanic Gardens (RGBE) this afternoon to demand that Inverleith House be reopened as an art gallery. 

Journalist Neil Cooper told those attending the ‘mass-visit’ that the art space was not a business but a public property. 

The decision by RBGE Trustees last October to close the gallery with very little warning and no public consultation had been an act of contempt. 

PROS AND CONS OF BANDSTAND SCHEME 

It’s now just over a week since we reported here the launch of a design competition for a new Ross Bandstand in West Princes Street Gardens. 

Readers’ reactions were overwhelmingly sceptical if not downright hostile. 

But are we judging the Ross Development Trust’s ambitions for the site prematurely? 

FIREDAMP: REVISITING THE FLOOD 

In a new exhibition at Edinburgh Printmakers, Canadian artist Sean Caulfield addresses problems close to his heart. 

How can the requirement for industrial and urban growth in his native Alberta be reconciled with preserving the area’s fragile natural environment?

Firedamp – named in the exhibition's title – is any explosively inflammable vapour found in mines and boreholes. The Flood recalls the destructive consequences of divine retribution and tsunamis. As Caulfield writes:

What is the secret ingredient of organic hair care? 

Alternatively, what is the secret ingredient of Nordic coffee? 

The answers to these and other big questions are available at 19 Haddington Place. 

Our thanks go to Maria Hart, who spotted Little My earlier today and claims to know the authentic pronunciation of the youngest Mymble’s name.