A Street Drain

This is what I know, growing up in Edinburgh, as as a siever, pronounced sy-ver. Other people know it as a drain, while those from the badlands of Dundee ( his Lordship for instance) know it as a cundy or condie. So many names for what is basically a semi- covered hole in the gutter allowing rain water to escape into a subterranean system of pipes which lead to wherever!
The ones in the road outside the castle are always blocked at this time of year by fallen leaves which means that a lorry will eventually appear with a long hose and 'scoosh' water down and hopefully unblock them.

I can remember as a youngster, my younger brother finding a scout knife ( one of the old fashioned folding knives with the black knobbly handle) in the street. For some reason my mother allowed him to keep it on condition he didn't damage any property. Cutting himself with it didn't appear to be an issue. Needless to say, hours later he was discovered cutting notches in the garden gate. My mother in a fit of rage, took the knife and dramatically dropped it down the siever outside the house. Maybe not the best solution, but certainly effective.
That siever saw more than a scout knife falling its way. A few dead tadpoles and probably some live ones too were dispatched thus by Mama.
She is unsuable by the SSPCA as she has been dead now for many years.

Edit:- Had a convivial lunch at the Mosque with fellow Edinburgh blippers and put a few more faces to names, but I will only ever remember them by their Blipfoto ones.

Edit #2 - I've spent the afternoon with my recently-returned-from-Greece, recently- recovered-from-swineflu friend, and she reminds me that as kids we were always admonished to stay away from sievers lest we get scarlet fever. How improbable is that!