Breaking news

Whilst all in favour of urban improvement, clean and cheerful living spaces, we nevertheless enjoy many of Edinburgh's obscure and colourfully tatty corners – such as this pend at the north-east end of Broughton Street Lane.

Has any reader researched what sort of businesses used to operate behind the bricked up doors just visible below the flyposters?

We also like the spectral and nicely rounded couple, stencilled by unknown hands, at the bottom-left hand corner and detailed below.

Meg – the deaf, local cat with a purr like a motorbike – has been found safe and noisy and is now back in her Brandon Terrace home.

It turns out that she had been depending on the kindness of strangers in Learmonth Terrace before transferring to the Cats Protection League in Leith. A worker there recognised Meg from her photograph, posted on lampposts the length and breadth of north-central Edinburgh.

Despite losing 10 percent of her bodyweight, and being a bit wobbly due to lack of medication, 'her Harley-Davidson purr still works'.

Can there be such a thing as too much hospitality?

That is the question posed by a Mansfield Place Spurtle reader, who wishes to remain anonymous.

Having grappled for some time with the ambiguities of an A-board outside the Mezz Bar on London Street, she has finally decided to draw it to to our attention. She suggests that the sign refers to nuts, but is open to misinterpretation.

We understand her point.

Strange, isn't it, how there is nothing like the mirthless, wasp-chewing tone of Authority for reducing the rest of us to smirks?

Take, for example, the sign attached to a gate in Ainslie Place Gardens.

'SOME DOG,' it begins in self-important capitals, 'IS CAUSING CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE TO THE LAWNS IN THESE GARDENS BY DIGGING HOLES IN THE GRASS'.

That is what dogs do, like squirrels, moles, warthogs, tram contractors and small children. It is considered normal behaviour in many places.

Have you seen this cat?

She's very old, very loving, and has been missing from her home on Brandon Street since 8pm on 2 February.

Being more of an indoor cat, she is not very 'street-wise', and her owners are particularly worried as she suffers from epilepsy and now urgently needs her medicine.

Another distinguishing feature is her purr – it is, apparently, abnormally loud ... 'like a Harley-Davidson'.

Please check your sheds, outbuildings, back stairs and cupboards, and if you have any sightings contact: 07877 031 189 or 07821 204 860.

The Friends of the Rocheid Path are a group of users and nearby residents who are determined to see this popular route between Canonmills and Stockbridge restored to its former glory, and if possible improved. They envisage a pragmatic combination of Council, contractor and local efforts.

The schedule for Henderson Global Investors' (HGI) redevelopment of the St James Centre has become marginally clearer in the small print of a separate planning application. The new St James Quarter could open for business in 2016.

The news comes in the wake of HGI having just received renewed permission to advertise on the north-east elevation of the St James Centre for another 3 years (Ref. 11/03944/ADV).

We have much to be grateful for, living in an age of efficient, labour-saving technology – as Bellevue residents can well attest.

On Saturday afternoon, a mechanised Council mini-sweeper achieved in minutes what would have taken a keen worker with shovel and handcart hours: the neat, linear distribution on local pavements of mud, sticks, litter and compacted dog turds, with a parallel dribble of water (see below).

Everyone knows that Valentine’s day is coming up and as much as I was tempted to make very cute, heart-themed cupcakes, I decided on something with a little more bite to it: a red velvet cake. This layer cake is the epitome of contrasts: a deep, rich red sponge sandwiched between layers of pure white cream cheese icing. It’s impossible to cut a small slice of this cake, so don’t even try!

Local band Whisky Kiss are off touring to Shanghai again, following a sell-out hometown gig at the Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh last week. Bassist Iain MacPhail recounts the latest adventures of a self-confessed 'ragtag bunch of musos, glam dancers and random showmen'.