Breaking news

It is very exciting to see Botanic Cottage, once semi-derelict on Haddington Place, now emerging restored, extended and improved in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

As part of its painstaking reconstruction, the walls on either side of the former Leith Walk frontage have been rebuilt.

Above the gate on today's west side, an original memorial plaque to an early principal gardener (PG) – John Williamson – has recently been returned. (It was removed from its original site when the Garden transferred to Inverleith in 1823 leaving Botanic Cottage behind.)

Vivat Trust Ltd, the charity which has let out Calton Hill’s Old Observatory House to visitors since 2009, has ceased trading.

The development came in the last couple of weeks, after a year of poor results and funding difficulties. Directors at the charity had been looking for a ‘white knight’, but when none emerged they conceded that the business had become unviable. It will shortly be placed in liquidation.

Here is a harmless brainteaser to liven up your drizzly Sunday. 

Where in Spurtleshire can you find, on the same street, the following individuals?

An investigative US lawyer

Edward from The Wicker Man

A wartime British leader

Norman Stanley Fletcher’s twitchy porridge stirrer

Blustery winds buffetted Edinburgh this afternoon, forcing the Botanics to temporarily close the glasshouses for fear of broken or loosened panes cutting short visitors’ enjoyment.

Meanwhile, out in the gardens themselves, staff struggled to instal artworks ahead of a new exhibition opening to the public next Saturday.

The pieces prompted a series of more or less vivid comparisons among those within Spurtle's earshot, most of which are unrepeatable.

‘NELSON STREET FROM DRUMMOND PLACE’ BY LUCY JONES  

There are some things that belong to Edinburgh, and in particular to the New Town. Local artist Lucy Jones is one of them. 

I first saw her work in February, where she was included in a mixed exhibition at the Union Gallery. Her skilful and intricate collages immediately stood out, and over the next couple of months there will be two more opportunities to see her work. 

Three Scottish literati helped publicise the arrival of new sculpture-benches on George Street yesterday, smiling for the media and drawing bemused stares from passing tourists.

Author Ken MacLeod, librarian and editor Lizzie MacGregor, and former Edinburgh Makar Ron Butlin posed outside the Assembly Rooms where two of the benches – featuring UNESCO City of Literature Trust’s top-40 Edinburgh titles – will be installed.

It is now over five years since Antony Gormley’s 6 Times was revealed to an excited Edinburgh.

The cast-iron figures stretching from Belford Road to the sea via the Water of Leith were an intriguing contemplation of person and place, statement and entropy.

They would, said Gormley, probably last a thousand years.

Kingsford Developments Ltd (KD) seeks planning permission and listed building consent to extend its plan for the former school at 154 McDonald Road (Refs 15/03181/FUL and 15/03183/LBC). 

KD wants to build a new ‘summer house’ and electricity substation in the playground area fronting Broughton Road.

Photos posted online of the latest desecration of St Andrew Square have met with a huge response.

Yesterday, we asked readers if there was anything they'd like to say to Essential Edinburgh about the changes, and we later invited Council leader Councillor Andrew Burns to gauge the reaction.

As its name suggests, Summer Cocktail comprises an invigorating blend of styles and strengths which leave one feeling slightly less in touch with the day-to-day world on the way out than one did on the way in. 

This reviewer's favourites included Lucy Jones's 'Blue Bear Café' (right): a familiar Canonmills scene here fragmented, refracted and reassembled as collage, monoprint and wax. 

For all its apparent disjointedness, there is a solidity about its blues and blacks and central door recess which is particularly satisfying.