It’s been a busy week for the guerrilla knitters in Kings Cross.

Three days ago, we caught their yarn going up in Fitzroy Gardens, but they’ve been working around the clock with a crane and a giant ladder, and the results are spectacular.

I love the idea of public art, but all too often the stark modernist blocks and balls in our public squares seem more alienating than intriguing. They stand so defiantly, inscrutable.

I Heart Kings Cross is something quite different. Warm, friendly – probably a bit smelly after all the rain – each piece of crochet and cross-stitch is so obviously made by someone.

It’s glorious and wonderful.

A pair of eyes are ogling across at a bikini-clad pole (that’s at the pedestrian crossing where Darlinghurst Road becomes Macleay Street), and, as if to underscore the knitters’ take on public art, they’ve wrapped one of the discs in Dennis Wolanski’s Angled Wheels of Fortune in a relaxed, loose weave – “Chill out, ’80s sculptor.”

The police station has been drafted, too, and the entire spectacle now stretches a little further down Macleay Street and up Darlinghurst Road, though the focus remains on Fitzroy Gardens.

This is one of the most unexpectedly glorious things I’ve seen in ages. Walk by, if you can.

The cafe at No. 9 Ward Avenue, Potts Point, has closed in mysterious circumstances.

Jess noticed it yesterday (her pic’s on the left), though the details are obscured behind the door. By the time we went by today, under a dusty orange sky, even those had been folded away.

Our post about No. 9 was the busiest and most commented since we started Darlinghurst Nights almost a year ago. It opened in July and seems to have burned bright, but fast.

UPDATE (25/9/09): There’s a new sign in the window at No. 9 (first noticed by Lisa in the comments below), that says the cafe is just closed for renovations.

The latest issue of Delicious magazine (October 09) says No. 9 breaks the Sydney cafe mould. It quotes Lane Finlayson (operator of the cafe, formerly of Bills, Darlinghurst).

We didn’t want it to have that ‘Sydney look’ of clean lines and white walls. We wanted something a little more European. It could be a very small corner of a grand country house.

The article says a liquor licence is in the works, with plans to open for dinner, which could explain the temporary closure – though with a great review in Delicious, they must be disappointed to be shut for business.

I’m terribly sorry, but a recent post would suggest that this is just asking for trouble.

Count them. 11 drums of vegetable oil.

And where was such a scene sighted?

On Macleay Street, only metres from the location of the “new” vomit.

A couple of years back, the Pop Shop, on Oxford Street, shut its doors.

I noticed the familiar faces of owners Angelo and Robert in Blueprint, on Macleay Street, earlier this year.

And then today, walking down Crown Street, between Campbell and Albion Streets, I noticed this:

They’re back!

The Cross is probably at its most grotesque at 7 in the morning. Especially on a Sunday morning.

Fights are still breaking out and the ground is absolutely littered with trash.

And vomit.

Sometimes the vomit stains the ground for months, maybe years to come.

Fortunately, just moments after this shot was taken, the Karcher boys were heading north down Macleay Street.

Cafe 9, sorry, No. 9, at 9 Ward Av, Potts Point/Kings Cross opened its doors a couple of weeks ago.

Already, I can’t remember what used to occupy the spot, just up from the corner at Roslyn Street.

It is tiny inside but makes excellent use of the space with a mezzanine level.

It is intimate and feels like you are in someone’s fancy sitting room, with elaborately framed landscape and portrait artworks, a fire, a chandelier, an antique clock.

We just stopped in for (Genovese) coffee.

But I do like the look of the simple breakfast menu.

I love the colourful, 50 cent piece sized macaroons that the Croissant D’Or sell.

Or rather used to sell.

I enquired about them today when I couldn’t see any in the display.

The girl behind the counter explained that they can make them to order, but they are so fiddly that they no longer make them, as a matter of course.

The thing is, their pastry chef, David, recently left, and until they find someone new, those macaroons are going to be hard to come by.

Please! Someone out there who is a pastry chef, you are needed!

Looking across roofs in Darlinghurst you see a lot of concrete. That’s kinda cool, especially walking through the Bladerunner-esque train underpass in Woolloomoolloo. But can you imagine turning some of the roofs green, with grass, small plants and trees, as well as solar panels and other ‘green’ technology?

It’s not as far fetched as you might think. Right now there are no more than a handful of these ‘green roofs’ around the city, but last year the council granted $48,000 to a group of Sydney-based architects, landscape architects and others to investigate what could be done to encourage more. It was widely reported at the time. But nothing since, despite the group reporting to council five months ago.

One of the authors, Tone Wheeler, says between 60 and 65 per cent of all buildings in the Sydney CBD could have some form of green roof, and that simple planning changes could be used to encourage their development.

A minor amendment to the planning laws can encourage better buildings. This could be done by giving [building] owners more ground space or an extra floor in the building, which can be offset by the whole of the roof being accessible to grow plants or food.

But at the council meeting on November 3, the Mayor, Clover Moore, described the Green Roofs Manual as “being developed”.

At the same meeting, they approved Wheeler’s development application for the Wayside Chapel on Hughes Street in Potts Point – featuring a green roof terrace.

Ever woken up in the middle of a reality TV show?

High density Darlo – with at least half a century’s reputation for great cafes and good food – has suddenly gone deli mad.

The skeletal, winding road that’s occasionally Macleay Street, sometimes Darlinghurst Road and eventually Victoria Street, has mushroomed with fancy providores.

You’ve gotta ask, how long can they last?

Here’s one of the originals: the Continental Delicatessan on Macleay.

They’ve exploded in the past year, Fratelli Fresh has even moved in.

Plus every Saturday morning is the Kings Cross farmers’ market.

You feel spoiled, with so many great, independent shops selling delicious produce. But is it sustainable, can they all last?