Rats
Dear Spurtle,
Someone is putting bird food out on the cyclepath near Wariston allotments which is attracting rats in broad daylight.
While it is not uncommon to see a rat from time to time, leaving out bird seed is attractive them in droves. There is absolutely no need to feed the birds at this time of the year.
For people like me who have a rat phobia, it is making walking on the cyclepath very difficult.
Are there any suggestions about how this could be discouraged?
Marion Wood
GREEN STREET
Le Rouge et le Noir.
No. 11 in an occasional photo series celebrating the street-name signs of Spurtleshire.
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ISSUE 328 – OUT SOON!
As you read this, surprise copies of the May Spurtle are already popping up across the barony like campervans on the forecourts of Fife.
Issue 328 begins with locals pleading for a good night’s sleep, a sad reflection, a grand span, disputed sunshine and some signs of the times.
Page 2 continues with yet another sign, this time the shrimp-gargling and nipple-tassel kind, followed by moves to ensure local voices are heard. Then we cover potential noise, bad drivers getting away with it, mounting costs and Fantasy Island fog.
TESCO, BROUGHTON ROAD
Can't understand it.
Fruit and veg supplies are rarely reliable, but other departments never seem to be out of stock.
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AWAY FOR THE MESSAGES
The Living Memory Association, based at Ocean Terminal, has recently been given a Heritage Fund award, writes project worker Russell Clegg. We’re using it to start a new reminiscence project – ‘Away for the Messages’ – on shops and retail history in and around Edinburgh.
We are looking for folk to contribute their stories, lived experiences and indeed photos and shop-based ephemera to the project (we can scan these and include in our current exhibition).
EAST SCOTLAND STREET LANE
Fly-post-free zone. No. 10 in an occasional photo series celebrating Spurtleshire's street-name signs.
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PAPERMILL WYND
Lovely weather for a walk.
No. 9 in an occasional photo series celebrating Spurtleshire street-name signs.
#Edinburgh
#hyperlocal
#news
OLD STORY OF ‘NEW’ BASEMENT GHOST SIGN
Recent work to restore the exterior basement stonework of 19 Hart Street has revealed traces of an old shop frontage.
On the Broughton Place elevation it reads, ‘CONFECTIONS—M.T. SCOTT—CIGARETTES’. Round the corner on Hart Street, we think we can decipher a palimpsest of ‘GROCERIES’ and ‘CONFECTIONER’.
To discover more about the place’s history, Spurtle embarked on a tumultuous rummage through censuses, statutory registers, valuation rolls, Post Office directories and local newspapers. Here’s what we found.