Breaking news

Pupils from Leith Academy were out in force today in advance of the Gretna/Quintinshill Rail Disaster ceremony at the weekend.

Their stencilled poppies, with forenames and the dates 1915 and 2015, now punctuate the pavement at roughly 10-foot intervals between the Drill Hall on Dalmeny Street and Rosebank Cemetery on Pilrig Street.

Each one recalls one of the 216 Royal Scots killed in the appalling accident whose 100th anniversary will be marked with a solemn procession along the original funeral route on Saturday.

Twelve parents and staff from Broughton Primary School will take part in the Hairy Haggis Team Relay at the end of this month. 

In doing so, they will not only cover themselves in glory and blisters, but raise money for the school. 

Four teams of three will cover the 26.2 miles, each team running a particular leg of the Edinburgh Marathon Route from Regent Road to Musselburgh via Gosford, which is practically in Denmark (see map below).

In Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, explorer Marco Polo regales Kublai Khan with tales of the mysterious and perhaps fabulous places he encounters on his travels throughout Khan's vast empire.

It becomes clear, however, that the cities he describes are all fragmentary glimpses of just one place: Polo's home town of Venice. 

The driver of this car had a lucky escape in the New Town last night.

He was turning downhill into Nelson Street at around 7.00pm but misjudged the angle of the junction. 

Although travelling at slow speed, he told Spurtle, the 2-ton Mercedes was uncontrollable after hitting the high kerb. The vehicle mounted the pavement and ploughed through ground-floor railings on the other side.

THOMAS AITCHISON'S 'DRAG A FILE HERE' AT COLLECTIVE

How would Andy Warhol have harnessed today’s modern technologies to create his unique brand of art?

Photoshop, 3D printers, social networking etc. would have given him endless opportunities for his work. Would that have been a good thing? Would he have simply dragged a file and let the computer do the rest of the work?

Debate about the future of the old Royal High School (RHS) on Regent Road has entered an interesting new phase.

Proponents of the new luxury hotel scheme have collated the results of their public consultations in March and are now moving towards a formal planning application.

Advocates of a new home here for St Mary’s Music School (SMMS) have embarked on a pre-application notification process of their own and are talking to all relevant parties who will listen.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? as Broughton's juvenal delinquents never tire of mouthing up at the CCTV camera on Mansfield Place.

Who watches the watchmen?

In the case of the flowering oasis at the corner of Bellevue Place, security now seems to have been handed over to an unlikely couple of aliens.

The bespectacled pair discreetly observe the scene from behind foliage, all but invisible save for their bright yellow skin and powder-blue trousers.

Planning permission is now being sought for the complete demolition of 1 Canonmills (Ref. 15/01786/CON). But don't expect to see the wrecking ball anytime soon

Fouin+Bell Architects  Ltd have put in the application on behalf of Glovart Holdings, based in Canon House at 20 Canonmills.

REVIEW: JANET MELROSE'S 'MAKING TRACKS' AT THE UNION GALLERY 

Nothing remains the same. Life moves on. 

And yet, through the eyes of Janet Melrose RSW, time is temporarily slowed.

Her work begins in careful observation of the natural world. She traces its passage, delights in its colours and contours and in the rare moments of experience shared between human and other beings.

By the time you’re reading this the country may have descended into chaos, or further chaos depending on how you view things. 

Post-election, the markets may have crashed. The power may have been switched off. Everything may remain the same. Who knows what’s going to happen?  

One thing's for certain though: this weekend I will brave the unpredictable weather and the car park of doom on a trip to Tesco’s on Broughton Road.