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Now summer is in flower and nature’s hum is rarely heard above the traffic’s boom, why not plug your ears with the latest copy of the  Broughton Spurtle? 

Read it first, though, for all the latest news in the barony. We have Council election analysis on page 1, along with a famous fiddler, ways to cut bills, concerns about lets and, not unrelated, perhaps the final refusal for the garage that wouldn’t take no for an answer. 

Exciting times on Abbey Mount and Warriston Road feature on page 2, along with a bottom-up response to community politics. 

 DEVELOPMENTS ON MULTIPLE LEVELS, ADVERTORIAL, AND DISCREETLY TUCKED AWAY

You know that virtuous glow you exude after pumping iron in your baffies for a couple of hours?  

Powerhouse Fitness (‘Europe’s No. 1 for Home Fitness’) hopes for some of the same (minus the foost) by installing new signage outside its premises at 14 Antigua Street (Ref. 17/02265/ADV). 

At last! 

An election barchart in which the length of the bars plotted is proportional to the votes displayed, as verified by Spurtle's 'ruler against the screen' test. 

This one, from Labour's Gordon Munro, even has helpful dashed lines to help show the heights of the bars. 

'Good-breeding is the art of showing men, by external signs, the internal regard we have for them. It arises from good sense, improved by conversing with good company.'

This is just one of the many thought-provoking aphorisms left unsaid by Cato (the cat), the darker of the two Bengals pictured snuggling on the right here.

Cato has been missing from his territory in Broughton Market for about a week. His brother is understandably bereft.

 DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT BRIEFS LOCALS 

Martin Perry, Director of Development at TH Real Estate (THRE), spoke about the St James Quarter (SJQ) project after Monday night’s Annual General Meeting of the Leith Central Community Council (LCCC). 

Owing to the number and urgency of questions from the floor, he was unable to complete his presentation. 

However, he had many noteworthy points, most of which we summarise below in roughly the order he made them.

A pleasurable exhalation of breath. A sigh of relief. Summer is nearly here, and with it … rain.

Edinburgh’s recent brief experiment with dry, sunny, warm weather (never all three at once) has mercifully come to a halt and we’re back to 50 shades of sodden.

‘The panoramic views from Calton Hill have astonished and inspired visitors for centuries,’ reads Edinburgh World Heritage’s account of the city’s highlights. 

‘Major landmarks can be seen from a bird’s eye view: Arthur’s Seat with the Crags behind Holyrood Palace and the Parliament, Leith and the Firth of Forth, Princes Street in its New Town grid and the Royal Mile climbing up towards the Castle.’ 

Another day, another glossy leaflet delivered with fast food flyers, another dodgy bar chart.

Actually, this is a repeat of Bar chart 2, but we're sticking to the letter of our election pledge and pointing it out for readers.

The latest offering – once again from the Conservatives – does not feature their local candidate Iain McGill, but does have 4 pictures of Ruth Davidson, 2 of Theresa May and 2 of Nicola Sturgeon.

 FIRST WOMAN APPOINTED TO COMMITTEE 

Annandale Mosque is honoured to appoint Mrs Nasim Azad as a committee member, writes Imam Hassan Rabbani.

She is the first woman to be appointed – a move by which we hope to further diversify our representation.

On becoming a committee member, both the Mosque and Nasim have made history in that Annandale is the first mosque in Edinburgh to have a female committee member.

Understanding and cohesion

 LIFE, QUALMS, AND THE WRONG WORD 

Do you ever have the feeling, just as your coach is crossing the Forth Road Bridge, that you have left the cat at home shut in a room with an open box full of undelivered Spurtles? 

Or perhaps your qualms comprise ovens left switched on, or windows open, or bath taps gurgling in the dark? 

Such unsettling doubts come unbidden, and their origin is stress, disquiet at shifting contexts, the pang of leaving one space or way of being for another.