The scenic route. No. 19 in an occasional photo series celebrating Spurtleshire street-name signs.

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You can travel the world on a Hebridean beach.

Each outgoing tide leaves behind stories: flotsam, jetsam, bookshelves and messages in bottles.

Or you can stay at home and wander the lampposts of Edinburgh.

Some poles include only the tight-packed prose of traffic regulation orders. Others are adhesive palimpsests, competing tales like barnacles encrusting rocks.

Berlin ‘s illicit drug scene features often, as do fascist football casuals from across the Continent. ­

Signs of wear and tear. No. 18 in an occasional photo series celebrating Spurtleshire street-name signs.

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Those managing the former Bank of Scotland premises at 6 Picardy Place find themselves with a problem

After the mushrooms.

No. 17 in an occasional series celebrating Spurtleshire street-name signs.

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On Saturday 17 June, the Museum of Scottish Fire Heritage in Dryden Place had a preview opening for local residents.

The museum tells the story of fire fighting in Edinburgh and Scotland, from medieval times to the present day.

As you read this, advance copies of the printed Spurtle are already spreading across Broughton like traffic cones on a Canonmills footway.

July’s issue kicks off with a surprise refusal, a rug going nowhere, and things going bump, crash, hiss, rattle and squish in the night … for hours and hours and weeks on end. Also: violence, missing hands but no missing fingers.

Page 2 continues with bills, buses and a troubled frog. There’s news of no news in Gayfield Square, no news in Powderhall, an absence in East London Street, and a proposed reduction on Calton Hill. And bins.

Canonmills and neighbouring streets are an unsightly and trip-hazardous jummle.

So says Napier Bathrooms’ Johnny Bacigalupo.

This morning, he contacted the Spurtle with a photo catalogue of shortcomings, many of which he blames on Council neglect.

Canon Street