Action Porty held its inaugural AGM at Bellfield. At the meeting the original Friends of Bellfield group, set up to support the Bellfield campaign, was disbanded and incorporated into Action Porty. Also, when Action Porty was formed it was a legal requirement to define a catchment area from which to seek a mandate for the Community Right to Buy of Bellfield. That boundary was extended to a new, larger catchment area when a motion was passed at the AGM. 

Not completely sure why but there were loads of Starfish washed up on Portobello Beach. There seemed to be some debate whether this was usual for this time of year, when storms churn up the sea bed, or a symptom of something more serious happening in coastal waters. Either way the image attracted some media attention.

It appears to be a tradition to burn Christmas trees on the beach in Portobello to mark the end of the Christmas season. Another impromptu community activity that seems to attract local people of all ages.

The annual impromptu Loony Douk on Portobello Beach on January 1st. Unlike bigger, more organised events elsewhere, such as South Queensferry, the Portobello Douk is when a number of locals gather to run into the sea. Some wear fancy costumes, others are in more regular swim gear. And crowds of warmly dressed spectators watch the madness. 

The first Art Walk Porty back in 2015 with a mixture of art in studios, art in shops and cafes, site specific art, participatory art and a makers' market, all crammed into one weekend. Here are a few of the people involved.

Some of the people at the launch of the first Art Walk Porty back in 2015, hosted at The Skylark.

Tribe Porty is a community co-working and creative events space based in Portobello, Edinburgh’s seaside. It was founded by Dani Trudeau back in 2015. I got involved in the early days through TEDx Portobello which ran in the Tribe Porty space for three years, in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Tribe Porty has gone from strength to strength, expanding to take over the whole building from its initial spaces upstairs. Back in 2015 I took portraits of some of the people who were involved at the start. Some are still there and others have moved on.

Not long after we moved to Portobello I took a series of photographs of the sea and sky at the foot of Bath Street. It started with a couple of pictures but then became a daily series - one hundred images, fifty-fifty, sea and sky. They were exhibited as part of the 2015 Art Walk Porty - split between The Beach House and Tribe Porty - and for a while remained part of the wall decor in the main room upstairs at Tribe Porty. Prints and wall art of the photographs are available via my online shop - please check it out.