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Earlier this week, the programme for the Portobello Book Festival was launched. Throughout the first weekend in October, the library will be buzzing with writers launching new books, talking about them, discussing the work of others and laying bare what it means to be an author. This is the 16th Festival and is probably alone in the UK for being free. Tickets will be available from Monday but to get a feel for what will be on offer, David Calder spoke to Joanne Baird and her daughter Grace, now both trustees of this popular event.

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Dementia affects around 90,000 people in Scotland. Across the UK, the total is currently around a million. Those figures however are expected to increase by 50% by 2050. That will put an ever increasing strain on the services which offer day care and other support services. One of those in Portobello is The Cottage in Milton Road, run by Life Care Edinburgh. David Calder went to find out what it provides for those living with dementia.

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St Mark’s Episcopal Church in the High Street has received some good news. The National Churches Trust has awarded it a £100,000 grant to help preserve this historic Georgian building. The church first started fund raising about five years ago but that was hit by lockdown and other issues which delayed the whole project. But when David Calder met the Rev Canon Dr Sophia Marriage, Rector of St Mark's, she told him of her delight that things were finally moving forward again.

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Here at The Porty Podcast, we were delighted to learn that a group of primary school children at Towerbank had come top in their age-group in a programme called ‘Academy 9’. The aim was to get schools across Scotland involved in real life science and technology projects - in this case the dualling of the A9 north of Perth. The pupils at Towerbank chose to focus on the environment and sustainability aspects of this major undertaking. David Calder went along to meet the winning team.

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It almost seems hard to believe but Portobello Town Hall has been running – and more important running successfully – for a year now. And it’s five years, almost to the day, when Miss Morag from Lothian Dance Academy found the doors barred when she was getting ready to put on its Annual Show. Thankfully, it did go ahead despite concerns about the state of the building. And within hours a petition had been launched to save the building for the community. It therefore seems appropriate that Morag Phillips, the same Miss Morag but now a trustee of the hall, should come to speak to David Calder about Portobello Town Hall’s successful first year in community control:

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If you were looking at Facebook earlier in the week, you may have seen the lovely photograph of a beaming Morag Donaldson. She’s just been presented with an award recognising all the voluntary work she’s done in Portobello in recent years, most recently in connection with Bellfield. She came in to record an episode of the podcast with David Calder.

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It's the first of June. The longest day is just three weeks away. And on Midsummer's Day, The Portobello Sea Rising Festival will take place. In this episode, Hazel Darwin-Clements from Porty Community Energy has been out on the Prom and Beach, occasionally getting her feet wet not to mention a little chilly in the breeze, to tell us about what we can expect at this event , which includes music, a puppet show and much, much more. The organisers are still crowd funding the event, and you can help by buying one of their t-shirts by following this link. https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/sea-rising-festival-2024

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The dark nights of 2020 were enlivened by the brilliant pictures and illustrations people put up for the first Window Wanderland. The event just before Christmas helped us cope with the restrictions of lockdown. This year it’s back but moved to the first weekend of March to remind us all that longer nights and better weather are on their way.