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.

bird on the water

On this blog wonder | wander | women never get tired of talking about the waterways of our beloved London and the wildlife that live there. We made several posts about the birds that thrive in the marshy areas of London canals and how it's a precarious balance of human and natural residents.

We found a totally unexpected species of bird living on the water this week! But first to set the scene: a visit to our favourite Word on the Water, the fantastical bookshop on a boat.

summer on the water

All year round the Kings Cross area is a huge tourist attraction, drawing sightseers from around the world.

St. Pancras station

But in spring and summer residents flock to the Regent's Canal near Granary Square.

There are shops, restaurants and bars, fountains and even the prestigious Central St. Martins of University of the Arts, London.

urban refuge: Camley Street Natural Park

A secret nature sanctuary nestles on the site of old coal yards, just beside one of the busiest urban developments in London Kings Cross. Camley Street Natural Park was supposed to be turned into a parking lot for trucks servicing the station, but plant life had overgrown the area and local birds and animals had made their home there. The London Wildlife Trust lobbied for the partially-reclaimed wetlands to be turned into a nature reserve.

for book & boat lovers: Word on the Water

London is a city of waterways as well as roads. We've posted about our canal walks before, but today we want to highlight a special resident of the Kings Cross floating community: the Word on the Water book barge. (Check out their Twitter and Facebook!)

The birds of London, part 1: wetlands

London has a thriving wildlife population for such a busy city. Many birds especially are adaptable enough to thrive even in areas thickly populated by human residents. 

Walking along the canals of East London this spring, we saw ducks, swans, moorhens and other water-loving birds enjoying themselves in the spring sunshine.

London's Canal and River Trust recently turned a stretch of the Limehouse Cut, lined with apartment blocks and industrial buildings, into a rich ecology by planting reed beds along the sides of the canal to protect nests and seasonal insect populations.

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