cherry blossoms, passing

In Japan the blossoms of the cherry tree represent the ultimate beauty, but because they bloom and fall so quickly, they also represent the brevity of life. wonder | wander | women always feel a sense of loss when we see the clouds of pink thin out and begin to show more new green leaves.

Painting of the cherry tree in Tavistock Square

equinox time

It's March 20 and the equinox is here! We call to our own awakening as Nature wakes from her winter sleep and sloughs off her mantle for yet another seasonal change.  

In the Northern Hemisphere, this day signals the long-awaited end of winter. While in the Southern Hemisphere, it marks the arrival of autumn. 

What exactly is an equinox? How is it connected with the seasons? How ae we all affected? 

writes of spring

The skies go grey, then bright, then grey again - British spring is not so much a season as a series of false starts. This week we're going through another cold dip after the brief period of warmth in March that is meant to get a Londoner's hopes up before the April windstorms drench our spirit again.

"real" British seasons, from Reddit

spring around the world

It's nearly April 1st! The flowers are growing, the trees are in various stages of bud, and the clock has flipped forward so we can have more hours of daylight...to work. We suspect it's actually so that people who have to attend work can end early and have a spare hour or two to gather their share of Vitamin D.

hope for the flowers

It's now been a year and a month since wonder | wander | women went into lockdown. Last year I was home with a month's worth of groceries, watching the cherry tree two streets over come into flower and then drop its blooms. I only saw it from my window, too anxious and disoriented to leave the house and cross the suddenly-silent city streets, even for our favourite flowers.

spring creeping up!

It's been a freezing few months, with snow, fog and winds keeping us from walking around our neighbourhoods. But in London at least, there are signs that spring is moving in again.

spring flowers & summer showers

We have been enjoying our seasonal blooms as we stroll around our Weehawken neighborhood. 

Walking off a happy meal and taking the time to chat with folks lovingly tending their gardens. 

The weather these past few days reminds us of this poem by Karen Chappell - 

April showers bring May flowers,
That is what they say.
But if all the showers turned to flowers,
We’d have quite a colourful day!

cherry blossom time

The wonder | wander | women have definitely watched too many Japanese films. We've seen many historical sword battles or the slow grieving process of a family losing a loved one. Meanwhile in every film, cherry trees (or sakura) in full bloom shed petals like tears in the background, reminding us about the transient beauty of human life.

Spring returns!

After the bitter weather of weeks past, wonder | wander | women were starting to wonder if spring was ever coming back. The week of snow definitely didn't help, although it was certainly pretty.

inside out

This has been the craziest Spring season yet here in the East Coast. It seems like the weather has gotten as unpredictable as our current political state.

For starters we are in the middle of May people [!?!] and it is only now starting to warm up enough to finally shut off our heaters.

Since the last blizzard in March it seems like we have only had either wintry days or summer days but no spring days whatsoever. 

sakura season!

It's safe to say the wonder | wander | women are a little obsessed with cherry blossoms, or sakura as they're known in Japan. One of our favourite spring pastimes is hunting blossoms to photograph - you might have noticed them guest starring in our vernal equinox post!

Spring rising - the vernal equinox

Last Sunday was the 'official' first day of spring - the vernal equinox!

they paved paradise, and put up...

...a paradise.

Brutalist architecture is called so for a reason. Distressed textures, the muddy colour of raw concrete and the stark lines of mid-20th-century* design exemplified this style. Many condemned it (and still do!) as ugly and intrusive.

spring blossoms

As wonder |wander | women pack to head for the tropics, the world around us is bursting in bloom.

Earth's Bounty

Bright baubles blossom all around us as Spring awakens through the chill and rain.

the coming of spring

Easter has come and gone and the clocks have changed; we are now officially moving into spring!

After a winter almost as grim and dark as the latest comic book movie, wonder | wander | women are happy to see our planet slowly turning towards the sun again.

spring is in the air

This February our home was suffused with the heady perfumes of a myriad variety of blooms all month long.

What a delight it was to get daily deliveries and many greetings from friends and loved ones all over the world.

blossom time: spring in NYC

In response to Mahala's London Spring blossom time blog last week, wonder | wander | women blogs this week on Spring blossoms here in the US, mainly in New Jersey and New York.

As the days warm up we are out and about enjoying spring's return in a landscape of flowers and bright greens. 

blossom time: spring in the city

It's an unusually sunny spring in London and people are flocking to the...beaches? Not exactly; Londoners prefer to sun themselves by the calm waters of the Thames and its tributary canals instead of going east to the still-freezing waters of the English Channel.

Flowering trees by Limehouse Docks

rites of spring: happy easter!