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An estimated 12,000 people paraded through Edinburgh this lunchtime in a pro-Union march organised by the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland. 

The event played out peacefully in bright sunshine as friends, family and bemused tourists looked on with interest. 

Yes campaigners had called on their supporters not to attend or counter-march today, for fear that feelings might run high and result in unnecessary flare-ups en route. Better Together had also distanced themselves from the event.

These eye-bogglingly beautiful plants are called Nepenthes, and they’re hanging from the awning outside Narcissus on Broughton Street at the moment.

They derive their name from a sorrow-banishing drug (nep=no, penthes=grief) mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey as helping Helen to forget her misfortunes. In his 1737 Hortus Cliffortianus, Linnaeus explained his choice of name:

For the ‘S6 residential’ this year we went to Abernethy Barcaple near Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway, writes Drummond CHS pupil Greg Howitt.

It was an eventful three days filled with team building, laughter and some interesting meals. From pizza and pasta to hot chocolate and some delicious biscuits, reactions were mixed. Even a surprise cake for Ali's seventeenth birthday was provided.

Orangemen are not the only suits, but you’d be forgiven for thinking so when an estimated 12,000 of them – some very smartly dressed – arrive in the capital this Saturday. 

The Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland has organised a march in the city centre to demonstrate its support for the Union. This will entail road closures and diversions for traffic from 10.30am onwards.

A list of those streets immediately affected is in the file at the foot of this page.

Edinburgh-based People for Places (Shrubhill) Ltd is coming forward with revisions to the planning application first submitted by BL Developments Ltd in September 2005 and consented in August 2008 for the gap-site between Shrub Place and Dryden Street (Ref. 05/03128/FUL; see map below). 

REVIEWED BY JOHN ROSS MACLEAN 

This exhilarating oil painting of ‘Fishing Nets’ by Joan Eardley is a highlight of the current exhibition of significant mid to late twentieth-century Scottish artists at Glenn Ross’s Colours Gallery on Dundas Street. 

It has a wonderful tang of the open sea, yet the rough netting, incised with the palette knife(?), has a delicacy as of gossamer.

Following a site inspection on Monday, City of Edinburgh Council is moving towards approval of the controversial garage/dwelling/office structure on East Scotland Street Lane (shown, right, as it first appeared).

S. Harrison Development Ltd (SHD) has applied for planning permission to build a mixed use development comprising student accommodation (226 beds), retail, café and restaurant uses at 34b Haddington Place (Ref. 14/03513/FUL). 

Has anyone seen ‘Rory Macaroni’? 

Christina Thomson installed him in the small mid-pavement garden at the end of Bellevue Place on Saturday evening.

By Sunday morning, his head had gone walkabout.

As the photo here reveals, the unmolested Macaroni bore an uncanny resemblance to Rory McIlroy, who is preparing to lead the European team against the US in the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles later this month. Any clues to the whereabouts of his missing bonce would be much appreciated.

Alternatively, just return it quietly under cover of darkness. 

Work began last week and continued over the weekend to try and convert the garage on East Scotland Street Lane – which always looked like a dwelling and briefly had aspirations to be an office – back into a garage.

There was a lot of furious activity on the roof, and the glass elevation facing the tennis club has now gone, replaced by a roller shutter.