The Christmas tree in Fitzroy Gardens has borne fruit, well parsley.

It’s just common parsley – not the good Continental stuff – but when you’re short and the shops have closed, it’ll do at a pinch.

It reminds me of those weird planters the council put up at the intersection of Victoria and William Streets and Darlinghurst Road – they had strawberries, although none seemed to make it to fruiting. Still, I’m really into the concept of council decorations that are useful for the locals.

We’ve had a few leads on ‘alphabafitti,’ as Kym Chapple calls it, appearing about town.

But there’s something about this one, on Roslyn Street, Kings Cross, that makes me wonder – copycat or the real? So I went back to the source, and it’s no copycat.

I like running through some of the recent this is for that hits, W is for “Weather Girl” is a particular favourite.

A run of 15 to 20 sedans, station wagons and people movers just drove down William Street, Kings Cross, and each vehicle had a bright candelabra strapped across the top.

The battery powered menorahs had signs saying Happy Chanukah. There was even a police escort.

Early this morning, at Fitzroy Gardens in Kings Cross, Council erected a festive Christmas tree, with stars, baubles and power to light up at night.

We admired it this afternoon.

Notice anyone suspicious in the photo above?

Hang on, there is someone lurking around near that hedge.

It’s the tree’s very own 24 hour security guard.

Do Sydney’s other Christmas decorations get the same attention?

Tucked into the rubbish bay of one of the backpackers hostels that dominate the Kings Cross strip now, I spotted this intriguing character.

Tan with thick black outline, and winking or possibly peeking out of the corner of an eye.

I kept walking up Barncleuth Lane until I saw this.

A little more colourful, still winking, this one’s on the wall of the Cross Bay Gallery.

Kings Cross’s glorious El Alamein fountain was switched off for a moment this morning.

It gets cleaned a couple of times a week, according to the council worker who flicked the switch.

“You wouldn’t believe what foreign material winds up in here,” he said. “Hungry Jack’s burgers, doner kebabs, you name it.”

He reached up and screwed up one of the fountain’s spokes and on went the water.

Braving the chlorinated breeze, it was a perfect time to capture the fountain without its characteristic splash.

We hope that the latest “R is for” is not spelling the end of our much-loved chalk alphabet riddle.

Spotted by Rachel a couple of days ago, on Roslyn St, down near St Luke’s Hospital was this.

Deep breath.

It’s all okay. “R” is followed by “S” and “T”.

They’ve been knitting for a month or two, now, in cafes and bars and on park benches, but over the weekend the assembled thread wound its way around Kings Cross.

Centred on Fitzroy Gardens, and the beautiful El Alamein fountain, but extending a little way along Macleay Street and Darlinghurst Road, it’s a project called I Heart Kings Cross, and it’s part of the council’s Art & About program.

The guys behind it, Reef Knot, formed out of the ashes of Knot Gallery four years ago, where the crew had collaborated with designers, musicians, sculptors and painters to create installations for street, art and music festivals.

Inspired by the work of Newtown’s Denise Litchfield, Texas’s Knitta Please, and Stockholm’s Maskerade, they’ve tackled this massive knitting project.

Collectives are springing up all over the place to knit in public places. It’s being called guerrilla knitting, and I reckon its roots are in guerrilla gardening. It’s a little bit political, and a lot about creating sections of spontaneous beauty in sometimes tired neighbourhoods.

We don’t usually post so many pictures, but this is really just spectacular, and every single bit of knitting is worth seeing. We started to feel a little sorry for the trees without woollen cloaks, especially with the current cold snap.

There’s been a lot of talk about the El Nino bringing a nasty bushfire season this summer, and looking outside this morning you could be forgiven for thinking the city is on fire. Except you can taste the dust.

That’s the view up William Street to the Coke sign in Kings Cross.

There’s an orange fog draped around the city. As you can see, visibility’s extremely low, the ferries have been cancelled.

That’s the Horizon building wrapped in dust. Meteorologists say it won’t clear until this afternoon.

UPDATE: According to the SMH, flights at Sydney airport are delayed due to “strong winds and dust haze,” citybound lanes on the M5 have been closed because of dust in the tunnel. The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning across the state as a result of widespread damaging winds, which were expected to average over 65km/h, but gusted above 100km/h.

We saw this cute tiger, complete with naiively written caption this morning. It was on William Street, Kings Cross, up towards the corner of Kirketon Road.

On one of those green electrical boxes nearby, we noticed another strike from the same artist. Another tiger, with a speech bubble that said “PONYO”.

Looking at the tag – a reference to the Miyazaki film, I guess – I realised it was the same graffitiist that had tagged my freshly painted apartment building overnight.

All of a sudden, I was looking at these lopsided letters and thinking ‘illliterate’ instead of ‘naiive’, you know what I mean? From graff-lover to Leo Schofield in a second. But what else do you do?