Category: This Broughton Life
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Deliverance is local: Covid benchmarks
Our disinfected doorbell rings. Outside a smiling young man delivers a box of essentials: fresh fruit, toilet rolls, paracetamol…and just a little booze.
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Hyperlocal signs of life: welcome to a braver new world?
Are we so caught in the headlights of pandemic panic that we dare not pause for breath to look more closely at what is happening around us
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The art and craft of making a good town centre
The Post Office closed and reopened as a DVD shop. Then the DVD shop closed and reopened as a shop selling…well, to be honest I’m not sure what it is selling, the window display does not tempt me to cross the street let alone go through the door, but it looks like they are selling…
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New life in Rodney Street
A sunny morning and cafe tables are out on the pavement. Pigeons strut, seagulls soar and two women sip a breakfast smoothie by the bus stop. Slowly, oh so slowly, Rodney Street is gaining a sense of place.
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Going wild in Broughton
A couple of bees are busy burying themselves in the private parts of bright pink geraniums. I have it on good authority that ladybirds often lurk among the leaves and grasses too. Oblivious to streams of noisy traffic, nature is thriving on an island of wildness in Broughton.
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New Town rubbish: our World Heritage
What makes the concept of World Heritage exceptional is its universal application. World Heritage sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located UNESCO World Heritage website So who owns the New Town? The morning after blogging about the bin bags of the New Town, I…
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Edinburgh’s New Town Wasteland
Oh contrary Edinburgh. While the people of Leith Walk are (rightly) angry with the council for messing up their street (see comments on Ray’s recent ‘rant’) round the corner residents of the posh New Town are turning their neighbourhood into a tip all by themselves.
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Beyond the grave
I finally found James Grieve beneath a holly bush in the cemetery. At least I think the bare stone plinth marks the spot where he was buried but dense prickles prevented me from burrowing too deep. I left the graveyard with a new curiosity about the man who made such a mark in life. Why…
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Goodbye Lenin, hello Tesco (again)
Does Edinburgh get the kind of Tesco it deserves? I am intrigued to find that old Tesco stories on my blog still attract new comments, curiously some of them are from people who indignantly defend the supermarket but there is an encouraging majority from people who want to support local shops.
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Gray’s Elegy
Never look a gift horse? I’m wandering up Broughton Street in two minds. It seems churlish to complain about bright new shops opening so soon after the old businesses closed down. In the age of austerity too. But the old curmedgeon in me can’t help feeling it’s a shame there are so few shops selling…
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Anyone for the pop-up economy?
A pop-up opportunity until the next tenant comes along? The old hard-ware shop is long gone and now the bright new baby-ware shop that took its place has gone too (though only as far as the next village). I’m sorry to see empty windows and To Let signs in Broughton Street but maybe, just maybe,…
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When a house is a home
A new dawn, a new neighbour, a new kitchen Poor old house. I can almost hear it groaning through the adjoining walls as the banging and drilling, the sawing and sanding, the breaking down and tearing up begin all over again. Yet another new neighbour means new paint, new carpets, new bathroom suite and, of…