home land, home sky

It was nice to be back in the Philippines! From the moment the fields and flats of Negros Island emerged from the storm clouds...

to the moment I murmured a teary goodbye to the lights of Manila...

tropical birthday treat

Who doesn't love flowers for their birthday? This year wonder | wander | women celebrated my 43rd year by visiting one of my favourite urban gardens, the Barbican Conservatory. This isn't the first time I've spent my birthday here; maybe it can become a tradition.  

The Conservatory is a contradiction: concrete balconies, glass and steel, and tropical rainforest richness everywhere. It squeezed my heart to see the shiny, broad leaves of truly monstrous monstera or the colourful spines of bird-of-paradise blooming in profusion in the middle of this mid-century cement complex...like the parks and markets of old Manila.

the colours of autumn

It's been a wild and walk-filled autumn! This year wonder | wander | women have been exploring again and we're happy to be safely outdoors (with masks and distancing) and viewing the changing leaves again. Of course some of the most vivid scenes can be spotted from our own back window.

mushrooms and moss

It's been an unusually "normal" English summer, by which we mean cool and rainy. After the blistering heat we had for the past few years, this mild weather was a relief. 

tiny kingdoms

The days are damp and darkening and I've been feeling a little damp and darkening myself lately, so I went out in the garden with a hot cup of coffee first thing in the morning. 

the language of flowers

Artists and art lovers are always fascinated by visuals with multiple meanings. Layering symbolism into an image can hold our attention for longer, engage our senses and brain, and leave us feeling more satisfied than an image with shallower appeal. Maybe that's why wonder | wander | women take so many pictures of flowers.

Summer in Coal Drops Yard, Kings Cross, London

fire and earth: exploring Etna

Visitors flying in to the Italian island of Sicily will see its magnificent volcano Etna breaking the horizon.

Italian food trip!

Italian food has always meant comfort food to wonder | wander | women, but we forget it's had years of being Americanised before it arrived in the Philippines. My earliest memories of eating 'Italian' were declaring that pizza was now my favourite food after watching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Genius Kitchen - Sicilian Calzone

silence

Our lives are full of 'one more thing'. We're always chasing something, catching up, keeping busy, keeping up. Where is the pause?

St. Pancras Old Church and Gardens

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.

Churchyards - living with death

London churchyards are ancient, beautiful...and mostly empty. The bones are laid to rest in the crypts of the parish church, and the headstones are taken away or moved to the walls and borders if, as in many cases, the churchyard becomes a public park.

autumn foraging

The weather is definitely turning murkier and cool, everything washing out into monochrome. Bill Bryson compares the constant overcast to 'living inside Tupperware'.

Barbican Conservatory: hothouse flowers

Two weeks ago we posted about the overflowing life in the Barbican Conservatory. We touched on the cacti in the desert room, and some of the plants along the tropical paths. But there are so many species in the Conservatory that one post wasn't enough to count all our favourites!

The gumamela, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, from our Conservatory post.

Barbican Conservatory: concrete jungle

Every summer, once a week, the Barbican opens a very special section to the garden-loving public. The Barbican Conservatory is London's second-largest greenhouse, next to Kew Gardens. Unlike the greenhouses in Kew Gardens, it's relatively small, split into several levels, and is in the heart of the city.

Pink!

This week in London has been very pink!

It's strange to go from blazing summer to a cool mild spring, but we're adjusting to it with the help of all the new growing flowers springing up everywhere this May.

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.