The cold weather is coming and we’re wrapping up warm against the elemental forces of a Shanghai winter. Everything is slowing down, fewer people out and about in the evening and people scurrying along the streets instead of ambling. It seems that even on Nanchang Lu, somebody is looking after the trees and preparing them for the frost by knitting or crocheting colourful sleeves for them. 
It was a most unexpected sight when I came across it and it made me smile. What a lovely gesture and added a bit of colour to the street. The next time I passed they weren’t there so maybe they’d been taken by some cold people looking for a bit of insulation or perhaps it was a temporary art installation. however, my guess is that it has something to do with the junior school outside whose gates the trees can be found.
Maybe it was a school project to knit a patch and sew them all together to make the trees warm – who knows but it did make me and I’m sure quite a few others smile on a cold winter evening.