Monday, August 11, 2025

light in august

Summer is in full swing over here in the Northern Hemisphere and wonder | wander | women are enjoying every sunny minute that we can. In London the heat waves come in between cooler grey days, so our brick houses don't overheat like previous summers.

Fountain at Southbank Centre

Events like ESEA Encounters at the Southbank Centre, Barbican's Outdoor Cinema and the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition get Londoners out of the house, a "staycation" away from the crowds of tourists visiting our parks and palaces.

Rainbow in the fountain

Londoners, like wonder | wander | women, are historically river people and love water. Although the city is away from the sea, the citizens love playing in the fountains and boating down the many canals and smaller rivers that run though town.

Houseboat mooring at Coal Drops Yard

The old industrial areas on the Regent's Canal around Kings Cross have been turned into a residential and commercial complex with shopping, restaurants, canalside apartments and outdoor events. 

Watching Frozen at the Everyman Cinema on the canal.

But on the canal itself, the historic boating community still thrives along the new developments. The Canal and River Trust operates guided tours through the area, and regular houseboat owners often come by, passing through the ingenious canal locks.


If you prefer a quieter weekend and a simple walk around the neighbourhood, the Sunday farmers' market at Chapel Market is a comfortable experience. Cheese, bread, pasta and fresh produce stock the tables of some of the friendliest people we've met, coming in to sell their wares in classic British style. 


And on days when not much is going on, we spend what time we can at the nearby parks and gardens. Summer is a brief but flamboyant time for British gardens, and we love seeing the peonies, roses, irises, and hydrangeas in rampant bloom everywhere.

Mini hydrangeas

Spring is the season most famous for flowers, but the intermittent cool rains of British summer time nourish a range of summer colours, as well as lots of flowers preferred by bees and other local pollinators. 

Pale peonies

This mix of fun, community, culture and convenience is what we love most about living in the city. It's also why summer is our favourite season. While we miss our home country and its beaches, for just a few months we can feel like our true selves in our adopted home.



Sunday, August 3, 2025

harvest bounty

The halfway point between summer solstice and autumn equinox is Lammastide. Christians hold church processions to bakeries, where bakers and their crew are blessed by clergy. 

Lammas is the first day of the harvest season, August 2 - and Lunar Lammas on August 9. Ending with the full moon in Aquarius - traditionally called the “Sturgeon Moon.”

the 1st Harvest in the Wheel of the Year

A time to celebrate the earth's bounty and give thanks. It's also a timely reminder to plan for the autumn and winter as it marks the end of the summer season and a return to less sunshine hours. 

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

art journal: old friend, new art

A journal is like a second brain but also a peek into the owner's heart. wonder | wander | women love filling our notebooks with words, scraps and sketches. These journals aren't toys or hobbies - they are our lives and thoughts, set down on paper as they pass through our mind.

Sunday, July 20, 2025

as above, so below

Happy International Moon Day, folks! Look up to the skies and catch these nightly spectacular stellar extravaganzas. Brought to us by the Earth's guardian celestial orb - the moon, our lunar sentinel. 

wonder | wander | women are eternal moon maids and Luna devotees. 

International Moon Day marks the anniversary of the first landing by humans on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 lunar mission in 1969. 

fact & fantasy for the survival of the human race

The UN General Assembly declared International Moon Day, a United Nations-designated international day to be observed annually on 20 July, in its resolution 76/76 on “International cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space” in 2021.

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

cosmic delights

wonder | wander | women kick off our birthday celebrations - starting the month of July and ending in September. Because our birth needs so much more than just one day of celebration each year. 

As the year shifts from winter and spring into summer and fall - so too does our perspective on what has transpired so far. Birthdays are benchmarks that mark our progress throughout life and lifetimes. 

sacred time

Our cosmic calendars are loaded - July is set to be a life-altering month filled with emotional depth, surprising shifts, and opportunities for powerful breakthroughs.