An item of "Breaking News". Will appear on the Breaking News page and the front page.
The New Town Clean Streets Campaign, launched last month (Breaking news, 11.8.14), has issued an admirably brisk and breezy report for September. We publish it in full.
Pluses
+ Welcome, new areas! (Claremont, St Stephen’s ...). Please keep the reports coming!
Fancy something seasonal and a bit special, but easy to make and using ingredients available in Broughton?
Try Magnum chef Paul Dow’s recipe below.
It’s easy to prepare in advance, serves two and takes about 1 hour 15 minutes (+ 2 hours chilling).
[Spurtle tip: Allow 4 hours for self-satisfied gloating afterwards.]
INGREDIENTS
Cornerstone Development seeks permission to convert the Edinburgh City Football Club at 7–8 Baxter’s Place into five residential flats (Ref. 14/03702/FUL).
An existing dwelling on the top two floors requires no planning permission since it will just be upgraded internally.
‘Is St Andrew Square a park or an event space?’ tweeted @speybaysoul this morning. ‘May as well just pave it.’
As she suggests, the available evidence now clearly points to St Andrew Square being an event space, on this occasion themed around the Ryder Cup from 23–28 September.
By our estimate, this will be at least the ninth major project hosted here so far this year.
'It may come as a surprise to you, but there is an exhibitionist side to my personality which sometimes just has to get out.'
James R. Faulkner's shock revelation was made exclusively to the Spurtle as he entertained visitors to the Stockfest stalls on St Stephen's Street this afternoon. His eclectic musical selections included traditional Dixieland jazz hits and some crackling operatic highlights from the work of Mozart and Puccini. They were played partly on the first such machine he ever owned, purchased from the Gramophone Emporium at No. 12.
In yesterday’s Independence Referendum, Scotland voted decisively to remain Better Together.
Or to put it another way, following Cameron, Milliband and Clegg's last-minute avowed 'clarification', all 3,619,915 Scots voted for changes of some sort. Some of these will affect 44,294,793 registered voters in the rest of the UK who didn’t take part in the Referendum (based on Office for National Statistics figures, December 2012).
Spurtle was out and about across Edinburgh today, starting with a tour of polling stations the length and breadth of greater Broughton.
The one in Bellevue Chapel on Rodney Street was the quietest we came across, with no-one visible outside the door and few signs of voters entering or leaving. They may possibly have been sheltering inside from the early-morning fog and drizzle.
By contrast, Broughton Nursery School on McDonald Road was abuzz. When the doors opened here at 7.00am, 63 people promptly flooded in with more following in their wake soon after.
A quick survey of windows this afternoon revealed a mixture of voting intentions in the heart of Broughton.
The sash pictured here is quite unambiguous. The flag draped next to the sign for Union Street says it all.
On this street alone, Spurtle counted seven separate households with referendum signs on display. Four were for Yes, three for No.
Walking along Northumberland Street the other day, my eyes were drawn to a plaque on the side of No. 25.
It’s not unusual to have plaques or names carved onto the side of houses in the New Town, but what struck me as strange was the description of the person. He seemed to be famous for being a son-in-law and then for being his father-in-law’s biographer. Does this warrant a plaque in his honour? Further research was needed.
This wonderfully grown-up version of an American classic is just about the perfect comfort food as the weather gets colder again.
Rather than the traditional roux-based sauce, it uses a white-wine base which adds a touch of luxury. Not that it tastes remotely boozy – the alcohol cooks off to leave the delicious flavour of the wine behind which sets up the mixture of cheeses perfectly.
Try it this way and I promise you’ll never make it with a roux again. I like this meatless, but a bit of shredded ham hock stirred through is delicious.