Stoop is actually a Dutch word, meaning “small porch.”

East Sydney and Surry Hills have many a great example.

These are along Foveaux Street, between Crown and Bourke Streets.

These stoops are on Crown Street, between Stanley and Liverpool Streets.

Our apartment building lacks a stoop. I think I would enjoy sitting on the stoop, if we had one.

And this one is from the top of William Street two Sundays ago, just before a massive storm broke.

Wholesome in the true sense of the word: bound by Dowling Street, Reid Avenue and McElhone Street, it’s a community garden, and it’s been interesting to watch it develop over the last couple of years.

The garden is run by local neighbours and friends through the voluntary Greening Woolloomooloo. They’re good at applying for grants, and since first pitching the project in late 2004, have developed the garden into a moderately stable thing.

You can imagine a face off between the gardeners and the usual denizens of a spot like this, tucked between inner city apartments, highway overpasses, and dark lanes. But graffiti is a big part of this garden.

The garden is divided into roughly four quadrants: upper and lower food production terraces, an art area and nursery, and a lower decorative terrace. It uses water harvesting at various points, and a water storage tank.

It’s a garden that makes me want to walk through the area just to see how it’s growing.

The current show’s by Emerald Fitzgerald and Andy Hopkins. Adam Cullen and Cash Brown have shown here, too, among others.

They blog too.

In September, there is the sweet smell of jasmine in the air. Come November, exquisite peonies make a fleeting appearance in the florists, and the purple flowers of jacarandas cover the streets. This one’s in Cathedral Street, East Sydney.