Breaking news

New plans for a hotel at A-listed 1-3,5 Baxter's Place were revealed last night at a meeting of the New Town and Broughton Community Council.

Lynne Harkes's wonderfully well-observed 'bee's-eye views' of flowers and petals caught our attention back in March when she exhibited at Bon Papillon on Howe Street (Breaking news, 13.3.12).

Now she's back again, with a new exhibition at the Dundas Street Gallery (6 Dundas Street) from 6–16 September.

An exhibition at Whitespace Gallery this month looks at the work of Edinburgh-based Sax Shaw, a leading light amongst Scottish artists of the 20th century.

Shaw's career encompassed watercolour painting, tapestry and stained glass as his predominant media. However, he also turned his hand to theatrical design, church furnishings and vestsments, murals, mosaics and other decorative arts.

Drummond Community High School’s partnership with Muthambi Boys and Girls Schools in Kenya received a huge boost this summer with the visit of four senior students and three staff from Drummond, writes Partnership coordinator Annie Scanlon. A lot of hard work and support from local organisations (including the Spurtle) resulted in this 10-day visit.
 

A new exhibition will begin soon at Bon Papillon, which means you have just 5 days in which to admire the extraordinary paintings of Rachel McKean there until 7 September.

McKean – a gifted cellist with an interest in art restoration – is from Edinburgh and is in the last year of her MA Hons in Fine Art.

September's soar-away Broughton Spurtle is sitting in boxes, like a caged Scarlet Ibis, waiting for its moment to escape.

In the new issue you'll find news on huge local holes, a planning stushie in the World Heritage Site, two bids for independence and a warning against.

A report issued by the Council's Tram Communication Team detailing local progress contains mixed tidings and loose ends.

The paper displays Action Points agreed with the New Town and Broughton Community Council after last month's emergency meeting to discuss tramworks and diversions (Breaking news, 8.8.12).

A new academic session has started, but old familiar worries about safe routes to school are troubling locals.

There are three areas of concern.

One of the quiet highlights of this year's Edinburgh Art Festival is surely Andrew Miller's The Waiting Place, set not far away from Ronald Rae's recumbent lion in St Andrew Square, writes John Ross Maclean.

This severely charming structure in black, recycled cedar and metal – described variously as 'a pavilion/bothy/kiosk/folly' for 'people waiting for diffent things to happen' (the latter a quotation from Dr Seuss's Oh the Places You'll Go) – also serves as a Festival venue.

One of Edinburgh Zoo's eight rare Scarlet Ibises escaped yesterday and was last seen in Dundas Street.

It broke free with help from a squirrel which gnawed through netting at the top of his enclosure.

A specialist 'bird team' from the Zoo, along with members of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, are on the trail of the fugitive, and have nearly recaptured it on several occasions today.