Greenwich: maritime monuments

Summer is ending before wonder | wander | women are ready, so we're looking back on sunny memories instead. We visited a friend at Greenwich and had a lovely stroll around the riverfront.

Space Invader street art

Since wonder | wander | women first moved to London, we found and loved the cheeky street art of French guerrilla artist Invader. His tile artworks imitating 8-bit pixel art are dotted around this city, as well as several European cities we happened to visit.

London scorcher

wonder | wander | women will remember this summer forever. We have seen solar eclipses before, and Mom was lucky enough to see a total eclipse, but this was the first time I was able to see one where the sun was almost fully covered.

Watching the solar eclipse at Wanstead Flats

spring on the water

This season has really been a rollercoaster! wonder | wander | women are dressing in layers and making sure that the cotton shirts and the fleece pants are available, because we never know how the weather will change from one day to the next. 

Postman's Park by the Postal Museum

signs of life

After months of darkness and rain, wonder | wander | women were relieved to finally see the sun out for a whole day! We've had weeks of false alarms and hints of spring, little signs that warmer days were coming.

Gardenias blooming early

Christmas at Coal Drops Yard, London

Winter falls on London, with blistering winds, early sunsets, and grey days. But the city lights up everywhere for the holiday season, chasing away the chilly gloom with cheery decor, warm drinks, and of course the famous Christmas markets.

Coal Drops Yard, Kings Cross

Autumn in Kensington Gardens

 After living so long in the tropics, wonder | wander | women love the turn of the seasons. Of course summer is the season that feels like home to us, but autumn is so beautiful and appeals to our sense of poetry.

goodbye summer

wonder | wander | women love the change of seasons but this year autumn fell like evening, too fast. It feels like we were barely able to enjoy summer before it was already over. Still, we made the most of it while we could.

An afternoon drawing in a local park

When people try to portray memories they show scenes like clips in a video. This year our memories of summer are more like fragmented colours and sensations. Bright colours, cool breezes, scalding sunlight.

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.

Holiday sparkle

The holiday season in London has become a festival of lights. The Christmas lights in Regent Street and Piccadilly are special tourist attractions, with their Spirit of Christmas theme.

Regent Street's Spirit of Christmas

hanging out at the British Museum

wonder | wander | women are endlessly fascinated by the British Museum. We're very aware of the dark history of the museum and how many of the objects simply state that they are "acquired" without telling the full story: captured from conquered nations, stolen from tribes, bought for a song from invading officers, or even pocketed in passing during expeditions. 

main entrance

Cute Exhibition at Somerset House

The viral exhibition Cute was in its last week a few days ago at Somerset House. wonder | wander | women have always been fascinated by kawaii culture since Hello Kitty and FRUITS Magazine, so we joined our friends and their excited kids for a wander through Cute land.

Cute exhibition header from Somerset House, created via AI

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.

medieval meditation at The Cloister Garden

If you know wonder | wander | women, you know that we are fascinated with the medieval period of Europe. Whether it's the incorrectly named "Dark Ages" of England that everyone pictures at the word medieval, the golden years of tapestry in France, or the intellectual and diverse Islamic period of Spain, we are willing devotees of the art, architecture and history of the period.

Entrance to the Priory of St. John and its Cloister Garden

So we were thrilled to discover the Museum of the Order of St. John, the 900-year-old charity still existing in London. The Most Venerable Order of St. John of Jerusalem originated with the Knights Hospitaller, formed in the 12th century during the Crusades. The mission of the order is "to prevent and relieve sickness and injury, and to act to enhance the health and well-being of people anywhere in the world."

The Memorial Gallery seen from the garden

from industry to illustration: New River Head

Exciting news in the London neighbourhood of wonder | wander | women as English icon meets London landmark. Beloved Roald Dahl illustrator Quentin Blake founded the House of Illustration, which opened an exhibition space in Granary Square, Kings Cross.

  

Now the House of Illustration is rebranding as the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration. The Centre is expanding, and now it's found an amazing piece of London history to house it - the Engine House at New River Head.

In a country as old as late Roman history, the word "new" is relative. The New River was opened in 1613, a man-made river created from natural springs to help pipe fresh water into London homes.

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.

summer on Hampstead Heath

London is a city with so much history that it's written into the buildings, the streets and even several feet underground. When we examine the history of a city, we look at its architecture, its layout, the people who built it and the ground it's built on.

View of London from Parliament Hill

One thing we often forget is that there are green spaces in a city, and that they may be as old or even older than the buildings that surround them. We visit, photograph and read about landmarks like St. Paul's Cathedral or the Tower of London, and we forget about the ancient heritage of St. James's Park or, in this case, Hampstead Heath.

View of Hampstead Pond no.1 from Parliament Hill

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.

the great fire (hazard) of London

A few years ago London was swept by a record-breaking heatwave called the Sahara Bubble. That heatwave brought a fiery breath of 36 degrees Celsius to London, the highest temperature recorded in the city.

views from the top deck

Riding the famous London bus was one of my favourite pastimes in pre-COVID days. After two years I have been able to go on again once or twice, and it reminded me how much I enjoyed it. 

St. Paul's Cathedral at dusk