Breaking news

A Broughton 'elephant' at the centre of Issue 190's competition is still eluding capture.

Readers are invited to send us a note of its location. The first correct entry drawn from the shoogly hat will win a £10 book token.

Staff and students at Drummond Community High School – and members of the community – are gearing up for a sponsored walk/run during the morning of Friday 1 April.

The venue will be Holyrood Park and organisers are looking for local people, businesses, classes and groups to take part.

Funds raised will go towards the £15,000 needed to bring pupils from Drummond's partner schools in Muthambi, Kenya over to Edinburgh this summer.

Hats off to the Edinburgh Evening News which on 17 January published a priceless parody of an unquestioningly reprinted Tesco press release. Alas, the author's name was not given.

Tesco opened on Picardy Place yesterday.

Spurtle witnessed no spontaneous outpourings of joy across Broughton. No enthusiastic crowds queued outside overnight in freezing conditions to be among the first inside.

When we went for a neb mid-afternoon, there were four customers – vastly outnumbered by staff scanning barcodes as if their lives depended upon it. Someone we took for a store detective stood rooted to the spot. He smiled dreamily into space. Perhaps he was thinking of a delicatessen.

The Edinburgh World Heritage Trust seeks renewed Climate Challenge Funding (part of the Scottish Government's 'Sustainable Action Fund') to combat 'fuel poverty' in the Old and New Towns.

All commercial galleries tread a fine line between indulging their own taste and marketing works that sell. Happily, the Union Gallery on Broughton Street has a knack of combining the two without compromising on quality.

Their latest exhibition (which runs until 14 February) is called 'Small and Perfectly Crafted'. All the works on show are modestly sized and moderately priced. That aside, the pieces – by over 20 contemporary artists – have little in common. There is an exciting range of approaches which defies simple categorisation. It is easier to concentrate on four favourites.

A new residents association has been set up for Claremont Court on East Claremont Street. It fills a void after the last association was disbanded a few years ago.

‘We want to let everybody know that we're back and passionate about our building and the Broughton area!’ says Secretary Marie Renwick.

Representing 64 households, the group has so far discussed the (flat) roof, local antisocial behaviour, new waste disposal arrangements, and the possibility of organising events.

It is not very many months ago that residents associations, community councils and other civic observers complained of being swamped by the volume of applications over which they had to maintain scrutiny.

This week, however, in those Broughton areas of interest to the Spurtle in 4 City wards (Inverleith, City Centre, Leith Walk, Leith Central), there were no planning applications and no planning decisions made.

It's quiet out there ... too quiet.

AXO Gallery (Axolotyl Gallery's edgy and experimental Siamese twin) will host a fleeting exhibition this weekend.

Scottish and international artists – working in a variety of forms – have been invited to tackle the subject of Domestic Bliss in whatever way they see fit. The result promises to be eclectic and stimulating, particularly since the supposedly festive season remains an open wound in many people's recent memories.

Organisers claim the works on show will be 'stunning but affordable'.

When the Edinburgh Evening News rehashed a Manchester newspaper's account of the new transport system there, little of today's pessimism concerning the Edinburgh tram project was evident.

It welcomed innovative methods for sticking to timetables, applauded the trams as 'highly successful', and noted that income had already exceeded expectations.

However, it could not resist repeating fears that police and barriers would be required to control unruly passengers. Britons, it seems, have long feared that if orderly queues break down, civilisation will soon follow.