Hi! My name is Giada Canderle and I’m an Italian expat currently living in Edinburgh.

My food blog and a separate series of recipes starting in the Spurtle over the coming months are the result of my growing passion for cooking and baking (and eating!) over the last 10 years.

Food has been in my blood since I was a little girl, with big family meals being one of the fondest memories of my time back home. I see food as a way to bring people together and to express our love and care for others.

COMMUNITY COUNCIL SEEKS 'DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGE'

1868–69

PETER JARDINE, Job and Post Master, Dublin Street Lane, Edinburgh.

Very Superior Private Broughams, Landau Sociables, &c., to LET on Job by the Month or Year. Inspection invited.[2]

Edinburgh Evening Courant, 21 July 1868

DEADLINE EXTENDED FOR PUBLIC’S VIEWS ON SECOND DRAFT

In March, Edinburgh Council published a draft Place Brief for the partially vacant ‘backlands’ between Leith Walk, Smith’s Place, Halmyre and Manderston Streets.

1866

THE SEWING MACHINE.

(MACPHERSON’S PATENT.)[1]

When we posted news this morning that Tattie Shaw’s is planning a phased reopening for collections, we had no idea of the tsunami of interest that would follow.

Edinburgh’s Vitamin C-starved hordes have been melting Spurtle’s social media and greengrocer James Welby’s mobile phone ever since.

So much so that, now, in the interests of public order and business sanity, we’ve taken down our original article and are instead posting appeals to delay placing any more new orders for the timebeing.

Not sure there’s much more to be said …

Ever since Drum Property closed down the majority of shops and local businesses on Stead’s Place, the mute shutters have served as a sounding board for every kind of local opinion, outpouring, oath, and obscenity it’s possible to imagine.

What looked at first like a kind of silencing has had just the opposite effect.

Thanks go to observant Spurtle contributor D.M., who captured the following images over recent days.

We really enjoy these suggestive vignettes, and present them without further comment.

LOCAL MARKETS NOW (VIRTUALLY) BACK TO NORMAL

For obvious reasons, Stockbridge and Leith Markets can’t operate in the confines of Kerr Street and Dock Place just now.

But if you’re missing the beards, bustle and fresh produce of pre-coronavirus weekends, don’t despair.

Both markets are now operating in virtual space thanks to the website Neighbourfood.

1864–66

THEFT OF A WATCH AND CHAIN.

Isabella Raphael or M’Pherson and John Robertson were charged with the theft of a silver watch, a gold chain, and twenty shillings in silver from the person of a gentleman.

It may only be May, but the summertime is coming.

To judge by this correspondent’s hayfever, the trees are blooming. And in the back green, the wild urban garlic grows as we’re treated to the next-door neighbour’s booming blether.

Despite all the uncertainties, frustrations, and sadnesses that accompany it, we’re in a mood to celebrate the positives of this peculiar once-in-a-lifetime interlude that is lockdown.