Porty Podcast

Today, the Porty Podcast celebrates its 100th episode. It has reported on people and places as well as the assorted events that punctuate the year in Portobello. In this retrospective, the podcast’s founder and producer, David Calder, looks back on some of the highlights – and how the Podcast came about.

Saturday is Apple Day in Portobello’s Community Orchard. It’s one of only two special events held there each year, the other being the wassailing of the tress in January – we featured this last year. Apple Day is a relatively modern ‘tradition’ having started back in 1990 and can be celebrated throughout October. The objective was to remind people that there are many more apple varieties than they realise – and to point out that many of these are in danger of being lost. Porty Podcast Producer David Calder went to the orchard to find out more:

One of the pleasures of living in Portobello is being by the sea. How many of you come down to the beach on a quiet day – and just ponder, looking out at the far horizon and letting your mind wander. It’s a great way to deal with mental block. However, we know that there are people who used to live in Porty – but now live far away, some of them far from the sea. There is in broadcasting a new trend for slow radio and TV – simply showing pictures or playing sounds without any commentary. So this is a different kind of podcast, one that will start an occasional series, called Sounds of Porty. Some of them will be like “Tweet of the Day” on Radio 4 – sound effects and nothing else. But the sea needed something else, a little perhaps poetic explanation of some the things that happen by the shoreline.

As you all will know, work has started on replacing the setts in Brighton Place. It was one of those Porty issues that set people apart! The traders on the High Street were – and remain – worried about the impact it’s going to have on their businesses – especially with Christmas not so far away (apologies for using the ‘C’ word in October). For former councillor Jimmy Burnett who has been heavily involved in the campaign to replace setts with asphalt, it’s been an exasperating few weeks. He told Porty Podcast producer David Calder that he remains frustrated by the whole process – but argues that, without the protests, the traders wouldn’t have won a number of key concessions.

This is going to be a very busy weekend in Portobello. There’s the charity event, ‘In the Dog House’ at the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home all day today and the Dalriada Comedy Night this evening; then there’s the organic market tomorrow and the Festival of Walking and Cycling on Sunday. But for many of us, the highlight will be the Portobello Book Festival which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. It runs over three days and is the culmination of a series of arts events from the Big Busk to the Porty Art Walk. David Calder’s been hearing more from three of the Book Festival’s founders.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven!” Andy Scarcliffe has decided that his season as minister of Portobello Baptist Church has run its course. This weekend, he takes his last service before handing over the reins to his successor, Glenn Innes, who moved down from Aberdeen with his family earlier this week. Andy has made an impact in his tenure at the church, so much so that local people have been asking Glenn “Are you the new Andy?” Porty Podcast producer David Calder went along to meet them both at the café run by the church in the High Street.

Tonight sees the first in a series of ceilidhs to be held at Bellfield. It’s the initiative of Ros Gasson, a local fiddle teacher and founder of Da Hooley Ceilidh Band. The band, which has been going for over 20 years, is certainly popular – it has bookings all the way through until September next year. But having moved to Portobello, Ros wanted to offer something to the community – and raise some money as well (in this case for Bellfield itself but other local causes will benefit later in the year). Porty Podcast Producer, David Calder, went to meet her.

You may have noticed that Porty Prom is a little brighter – or at least, the rubbish bins have taken on a new, brighter appearance. It’s part of a project, called My Beach, Your Beach, run by Keep Scotland Beautiful. The idea is to remind the people who use the beach and the prom that it’s THEIR responsibility to clean up after themselves. The project team leader, Aoife Hutton, has been paying weekly visits to Portobello to monitor the state of the beach in particular. It’s run in partnership with Scottish Water which has been looking at water quality – if you’ve wondered about what looks like a small oil rig in the south side of the Forth, that’s what it’s doing. Yesterday, an impressive 40 volunteers helped with a major beach clean. As Aoife explained to Porty Podcast Producer David Calder, they were split into two teams.

Artists in Portobello cover a wide spectrum. One of the more unusual ones connected to this year’s Art Walk is called Séance, a series of carefully crafted short stories, most of which draw their inspiration from Portobello, its houses, the sea, the people. It’s the creation of Chris Dooks and Eleanor Thom who will launch it tonight at the Beach Lance Social Club.

Events like the Art Walk Porty make Portobello a great place to live. There are dozens of artists living here – painters, sculptors, ceramic makers and so many more with such diverse talents. This is the now annual opportunity to see what they’re producing and perhaps acquire something unique. This year, the Art Walk is four years old. Its theme is ‘PLEASURE GROUND’ with a mix of live music, writing, walks, installation and film screenings as well as everything else, as David Calder’s been finding out.

This is the weekend of The Big Busk. Dozens of musicians descend on Porty Prom to perform, pretty well all day long. Now in its ninth year, it had simple beginnings – but even at the start, there were ambitions to make it something really special, to make it part of the Edinburgh Festival and that has happened although the founder, Paul Lambie, prefers to think of it as a ‘carnival’ as David Calder, the Porty Podcast Producer, has been finding out.

You may have noticed a highly decorated vehicle in Portobello High Street, outside the Town Hall, last night. That was the Travelling Gallery paying one of its regular visits to Porty. It will be back from 11 o’clock this morning. But this visit was special. The Gallery is celebrating its 40th anniversary and chose to launch its final tour of 2018 in Portobello, as Porty Podcast Producer, David Calder, found out.

Cycling has seldom seen so popular. There’s never been such a choice of bikes with prices that range from the affordable to the “How Much!!!”. There have been new developments as well. Electric bikes are now coming down in price; and up in terms of how far they can travel. But just like a car, they need to be looked after, professionally. That too can be expensive, especially if you go to one of the many shops in the centre of Edinburgh. But why go there when you can find all the expertise you need right here on Porty High Street. Porty Podcast Producer David Calder is a regular customer.

It's 18 months since we last heard from Tommy Sheppard, MP for Edinburgh East. It's been an exciting and extremely frustrating time for him and most of the other Scottish MPs in Westminster. He's watched as both Tory and Labour Parties have spent hours failing to agree internally and indeed almost seeming intent on tearing themselves apart over Brexit. That quickly became apparent when he spoke to Porty Podcast Producer, David Calder.

When Earthy closed its doors in Portobello, many people wondered what would happen with the space. Well, now we know. It's currently under a pretty major refurbishment by Tribe Porty which has taken over the whole building - we'll hear more about its plans later in the year. But what they have done is open up the space to other social enterprises - including the Edinburgh Tool Library. Its part of the building is now ready - but they can't open to the public just yet as other sections are still construction sites. However, this week, they invited people to take a look around and enjoy a beer and a BBQ. We went along to take a look.

Driving in towards Portobello from the West, you can't help but notice the bright green signs advertising the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home. It's a large, triangular site between the main road and the start of the Prom at Seafield. It's been there for almost 70 years - but it's story reaches back to the middle of the 19th century as Porty Podcast producer, David Calder, found out.

The growth of Development Trusts across Scotland has been an undoubted success story. Over 40,000 people have been involved in buying land or property since the Community Right to Buy Legislation was passed in 2003. They now own assets worth almost £90m and have brought in £25m in regeneration funding. With a collective turnover of over £50m, they are economic success stories too. The trusts have transformed areas, especially rural ones, across the country. But as we know, the law was updated to allow for local communities to acquire buildings in towns and cities as well with of course Bellfield being the first to succeed. Bellfield had a major advantage in that Ian Cooke, director of the Development Trusts Association Scotland, lives in Portobello, just up the hill from the new community centre. Porty Podcast Producer David Calder started by asking him about his involvement.

The summer sun brings out the vibrancy in the colours we see around us. And vibrant colours are very much on display at the latest exhibition at the Velvet Easel Gallery which opens today. The work of many artists is on show - and not just from Scotland. Some of the paintings are exciting, others challenging; and that may be part of the reason for the curious title 'Defying Sameness'. Porty Podcast Producer David Calder asked gallery owner Roz Walker to explain.

You may have noticed that most of the schools are now on holiday! On the good days (and we have had a few recently), the beach is bustling with families, the children splashing around in the sea, building sandcastles or burying granddad in the sand. But what happens on days when the weather is not so good? The kids may spend some time at home, at best playing games on assorted devices; at worst getting under everyone's feet. However. Portobello Library is offering some relief by a mix of challenges and crafts. Under the title of the Summer Reading Challenge, it draws inspiration from "The Beano" which celebrates a major anniversary this year. It's a nation-side summer project called 'Mischief Makers". Porty Podcast Producer David Calder heard more from manager Paul Hudson.

It’s going to be very busy in Portobello this weekend. On the beach, crews from around the country will gather for the Porty Regatta, a day of fun and frolics on the water plus some serious racing. And it’s also the day that Bellfield opens as Portobello’s Community Hub – a great venue for all kinds of activity from youth theatre to coffee mornings, from bike maintenance classes to…well, it’s up to the people of Porty to decide. We’ve been to hear more about both: