An item of "Breaking News". Will appear on the Breaking News page and the front page.
A quite astonishing image of the St Mark's Park Gormley by Spurtle Twitter correspondent @dOSsDaz appears today in Issue 194, very small and black-and-white.
We thought you'd appreciate it larger and in colour.
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The more astute of you may have noticed that it is May already. We’re not sure how it happened either. Still, let us make the best of things by noting in our diaries the more salient social engagements going on in and around Spurtleshire over the next month.
First off, art. A new exhibition by Perthshire-based artist Jane Melrose opens at the Union Gallery (45 Broughton Street) on 5 May. Her paintings and drawings explore themes surrounding the natural environment and childhood memories, which seems ideal spring viewing.
An obscure Broughton byway has entered the limelight.
Scotland Street Lane (East), connecting Bellevue Crescent and Scotland Street, has featured locally for:
The latter incident resulted in a broken window, and dislodgement of a coping stone (see photo).
Spurtle's printed May edition will hit the sun-drenched streets and sundry shady interiors of Broughton tomorrow.
We have gulls, puffins, pelicans and a displaced pigeon, lollies, funfairs, hammer-throwing records and a wandering dead president (no connection), lively ivy, heavy drenchings, upmarket downpipes, trout, two items of lamp-post news, fund raising, gallery previews, drunken youth, bongo drums and inebritated mice.
And other stuff, some less serious, some more.
Enlivened by sunny days and public bank holidays? Moved even a little by royal-wedding joy?
Uplifted by hints of economic upturn and an unaccountable sense of things locally and worldwide slowly, gradually getting less worse?
Thought not. Neither is the street artist who tersely adorned this St Andrew Square lamppost (pictured right).
Political advertising seemed to flower overnight, prompting one anonymous reader to email us these Spring election thoughts first thing this morning.
Further literary contributions from across the political spectrum are welcome.
Police have named the cyclist killed yesterday in a collision at Broughton Point.
He was 32-year-old Craig Newton from Musselburgh.
Spurtle staff were too busy to attend the royal wedding today, but we did follow it off and on through Twitter.
Below is the (edited) pick of the tweets, a few containing strong views, sometimes fruitily expressed, which a few readers may feel are not strong enough.
There is still a sense of shock in Broughton as locals take in the news of this morning's fatal collision between a bin lorry and a cyclist. Flowers have been left at the site, and parents collecting children from the adjacent school this afternoon talked in clusters, digesting the implications.
Although there is no proof that these factors contributed to the incident, residents are raising concerns about vehicle speeds on East Claremont Street, and traffic volumes (significantly increased lately during the temporary closure of Broughton Road).
It has now been confirmed that the cyclist injured in this morning's collision at Broughton Point died at the scene.
The 32-year-old male had been struck by a Council bin lorry.
Police have requested witnesses to come forward.