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As you dry up your cups and saucers, do you ever find yourself wandering out of the house in search of something more interesting to do?

If so, artist Keith Thompson has the perfect household requisite for you.

Plans to build 2 restaurants, 6 flats and 3 townhouses at 1,2,3–6 Canonmills (beside the bridge) have at last been approved (Ref. 09/00830/FUL). 

What is the point of time-limited planning permissions if the time allowed for development is not, indeed, limited?

Although stone-crushing on the Shrub Place gap-site has now ceased, lorries and JCBs are still shifting vast amounts of tramwork-related rubble and materials around, on and off it.

The resulting noise, dust and vibration annoy and distress local residents, who not surprisingly feel such activities are better suited to an out-of-town location.

The New Town and Broughton Community Council has responded to the Council's 'Building a Vision for the City Centre Consultation'.

We reproduce its Chair Ian Mowat's clear and concise letter at the foot of this page.

NTBCC's key findings as they affect Broughton are that any move (as mooted) to reroute or displace traffic from Princes Street and George Street would:

Are you out and about this Saturday? Wear everything – you name it, sunproof, heat insulating, water-resistant – everything.  

The Weather Channel reckons there's a 70 per cent chance of rain and a maximum temperature of 12º C.

The Met Office predicts a bright start followed by cloud and rain, then bright intervals and showers. Temperatures, they suggest, won't get above 13º C.

Does any reader recognise this wee chap?  

He's a black-and-white male kitten aged about 6 months, and was first spotted in a back green off Rodney Street around Friday 3 May. He has not been chipped or neutered. 

His current rescuer says: 

'We first noticed him hanging about last Friday (3 May) as we have two other cats that we let out into the back garden and he tried to come in when we were calling our cats.  

The brief to artists for this month's exhibition Neighbourhood Birds at Bon Papillon was to depict 'birds of garden and field that are often overlooked and victimized'.  

The result is an aviary of at least 20 put-upon species, including a peacock. Clearly, some artists have bigger gardens or are more flexible about briefs than others.

What appear here are a very few favourites, chosen from a list which could easily have included 10 more using an interesting variety of techniques and media.

Proposals to create a Pilrig Conservation Area (PCA) are being considered by the Council's Planning Department, and will be explained in public soon at a series of local open evenings and an exhibition.

Local woman Laura Gorrie has been missing in the capital since 8.45pm on Wednesday 1 May, and Edinburgh Police are now seeking help to trace her.