By Councillor Maureen Child who is Labour Councillor for Portobello/Craigmillar Ward
A reminder: The Thistle Foundation, Queen’s Walk, Craigmillar are holding a community event tomorrow, Saturday 27 October 12 noon to 2.30pm to launch of a life-saving defibrillator which will be accessible to the community 24/7 for use in an emergency. Link Up, Thistle Foundation, St Johns Scotland and Save a Life Scotland have all worked together on this. If you can, please do go along and get entertained by children from Castleview Primary School and Nevis Ensemble – and learn to save a life with free CPR and defibrillator training.
Since the closure of Brighton Place, it is more important than ever for local residents to Shop Local. More here: http://porty.org.uk/shop-porty/
A late night shopping event is being set up to support local businesses on Thursday 6 December from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. It would be lovely to have the street alive with music and entertainment. If anyone would like to be involved, you could just rock up on the night. However, it would be great to have people in front of participating shops to draw attention to them. If you would be interested in linking up with a business, there are businesses who would love to link up with you! Please email portystreetfest@gmail.com if you would like to take part!
This is a lovely piece about one of our lovely local Portobello businesses, The Velvet Easel which has now been open for five years.https://www.scotsman.com/sponsored?mvi=49218be97b0a4da181c43891deacd2c2&fbclid=IwAR3lNlWUscqA7vVMizipAYtnCUEx9xyPfygxtIY_Hf6XvDytKjD3qM-TgTY
The men who choose a career in childcare often face an additional hurdle to their female colleagues – overcoming some prejudice, suspicion and stigma of being a man working with young children. This is an excellent feature piece on Highland Fling, based in Portobello. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-45964562?SThisFB
Preparations are underway for a tree dressing event with Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust (ELGT) on Saturday 1 December at Craigmillar Castle Park. Karin Chipulina will be helping prepare decorations in the Thistle Foundation on 15 November any time between 11am and 1pm. You can help make bunting, leaf decorations and cloth hangings. There will be a sewing machine and lots of other materials there for you to work with. Then you could help dress those trees later at the Saturday event. Please do pass this information on to anyone you might know who would be interested, or contact Karin Chipulina Craigmillar Community Grows, Community Development Worker for Carr Gomm C/O The Thistle Foundation,13 Queens Walk,EH16 4EA. M: 07824838364.
Portobello Timebank’s November Clean Up is on Saturday 3 November 1:30pm – 4pm, in Brighton Park, starting as soon as the monthly Market closes. The plan is to do some litter clearing, sycamore thinning, a bit of guerrilla gardening and some general autumnal tidying of Christian Paths between Brighton and Windsor Place. Bring gloves and secateurs if you’ve got them. Wellies are not required for this one. December’s outing will be the Magdalene Glen stretch of the Brunstane Burn, centred around the play park.
Figgy Park Friends have a volunteer day at Figgate Park on Sunday 28 October, 9.30am-11.30am. As well as our usual litter picking, there will be gardening tasks in and around Fruity Corner. The Friends will have all the necessary tools and equipment and there will be refreshments at the end. Both activities start at 9.30am. Meet at the notice board near the pond for litter picking and Fruity Corner for gardening.
Kate Carter, a p7 class teacher and science development lead at Castleview Primary School shared with us local Councillors the school’s first edition of their amazing Science Newspaper (CSN). It’s written and edited by the pupils and shares activities and interests relating to science in school and local community. The creation of the newspaper team is a part of Castleview’s work as finalists in the Rolls-Royce Science Prize. This is a year-long project which includes a significant financial award. I can send you my electronic copy of CSN if you like. It really is fab!
PEDAL Apple Day is at the Community Orchard this Saturday 27 October from 2.00pm to 4.30pm. There’ll be apple juicing, apple tasting, games along with teas and cakes. The community orchard is just off Brunstane Road South opposite the railway station.
Portobello Promenade has, so far, just one stand of bikes to rent outside Tumbles. There will be more to come, I’m sure, as they are proving very popular. Find out more here: https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/our-region/edinburgh/demand-high-as-4000-people-rent-just-eat-bikes-in-first-month-1-4816489
I hope you have a great weekend!
Maureen
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
