Breaking news

Overnight torrents and morning showers have once again raised river levels alarmingly along the Water of Leith.

Flattened foliage on the banks downstream from Canonmills suggest the water was a foot or two higher at its peak, but it remains sufficiently high to have inundated flood prevention works along Warriston Road by B&Q.

In St Mark's Park, the Gormley is clinging on, but will surely topple soon if rain continues.
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Lothian and Borders Police (LBP) are appealing for witnesses after a man was seriously assaulted.

The incident happened on Sunday 3 July at Canonmills Service Station at around 3.45am. The 26-year old was waiting in a queue when, without provocation, a man walked up and punched him in the face. The victim was taken to hospital and received an operation for a broken jaw.

He only reported the incident on Monday 11 July.

LBP are following a positive line of inquiry but are asking for anyone who was in the area and saw what happened to come forward.

As mentioned in Issue 196, The French Fancies patisserie has now opened in basement premises at the Broughton Street end of London Street.

Bee and Thomas Bruno are at the helm. She welcomes visitors to the shop and tea room, he creates the edible wonders. Business so far has been brisk.

As well as gorgeous-looking tartines, we spotted a variety of extraordinary jams: vanilla and milk; pears and ginger; chocolate and banana; raspberry, strawberry and pastis. That's right: raspberry, strawberry and pastis, together in a jar in one jam.

Drummond Civic Association's annual garden party, rained off at the last attempt, has been rescheduled again.

It will now be held from 6pm–9pm on 6 August.

Invitees are asked to check that they have the correct details in their diaries.

1. BODY 'LAY FOR WEEKS' IN LEITH FLAT  (Edinburgh Evening News, p.1,  Monday 11 July 2011)

2. ANGER AT ZOO'S 'GHOULISH' AUTOPSY SHOW (Edinburgh Evening News, p.1, Wednesday 13 July 2011)

3. O wad some Power the giftie gie us
    To see oursels as ithers see us!
                (Robert Burns, 'To a Louse', 1785)

Whisky Kiss left Broughton early on Sunday 10 July to play T in the Park, recalls band member Iain MacPhail, dimly.

The band didn't leave Edinburgh with a whimper though. Accompanied by our hottie Highland dancers from Assemble & Leap, the band put the Rauc in Raucous, and departed Broughton in Scotland’s biggest limo. It stretched from the very edge of New Town Deli on Barony Street right down to Shamoon’s. We have of course contacted the UN to suggest this should become the international standard measurement of a big limo.

'Head to head' – an exhibition focusing upon 'the human head' – at first sounds slightly offputting. One half-expects to enter a room full of bloody spikes and grimacing decapitees. The reality – at Broughton Street's Union Gallery, at least –  is very different.

By concentrating on the term head rather than face or portrait, partners Alison Auldjo and Rob Dawkins have given their four featured artists ample space in which to interpret this most celebrated and familiar human subject in unfamiliar and contrasting ways.

Sustained pelshings and thunder-plumps took their toll yesterday, with homes across Broughton suffering leaky roofs, burst downpipes, and overflowing drains.

The Scots Pine pictured here, rooted in the loose, saturated soil of the cemetery, finally succumbed and now neatly bridges the Water of Leith on Warriston Road.

Residents in Bonnington narrowly escaped flooding as the Water of Leith rose over a metre and threatened to overtop part of the wall which had been partially taken down during recent engineering works.

Spotted yesterday on Bellevue Place: a chrome-effect car badge combining the ancient Alpha or icthus symbol of Christianity with feet and the surname of a famous Edinburgh medical student.

This correspondent at first thought it was intended to express a mature compromise between faith in the Almighty and acceptance of Evolution. Not so. A frothing atheist friend soon asserted that the badge is intended as a humourous but firm rebuttal of religious faith in general and Intelligent Design in particular.

Brace yourselves Broughton! This Sunday morning our quiet and respectable corner of town will be visited by Scotland’s biggest limo.

That can mean only one thing: Whisky Kiss are heading off to T in the Park! We are getting picked up outside the Broughton Delicatessen on Barony Street in the hulking Hummer, before crossing into the Kingdom of Fife and on to Balado.