Painting: crossroads

I went for a walk in the beautiful Epping Forest with a friend before the winter set in. The skies were grey but the leaves, on the trees and the ground, were a beautiful golden colour.

the long golden afternoon of the year

Happy Thanksgiving! Many of us are saving our revels for the weekend, but it's always the right time to appreciate the season of Thanksgiving - the third Thursday of November, as the leaves fall and darkness covers the Northern Hemisphere.

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

finding new spaces

Unlike the tidy grids of New York, the streets of central London wander around oddly shaped properties, cross themselves, and split off in small paths that may lead to a dead end. Walkers in a hurry usually stick to their prepared routes or rely on map apps to keep from getting lost.

friends al fresco

After who knows how long, vaccinations in the UK are at the point where it's finally less risky to go out to the park and have some snacks and drinks with friends (at a safe distance) again. 

summer blooms at St George's Gardens

St. George's Gardens were originally the first offsite burial grounds for a local church, or rather two local churches: St. George's Bloomsbury and St. George the Martyr in Queen's Square.

Some of the graves have been left standing, although the bones beneath them were respectfully gathered and housed in the church crypts. 

love letter to London

In a previous post, wonder | wander | women talked about taking online art courses as a way to get through art block and gain new illustration skills. One of those courses asked students to pick a city we wanted to illustrate, and I - naturally - chose London.

Looking at St Paul's Cathedral and the London skyline
from the South Bank

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.

Island afterlife: San Michele

The island of San Michele has served as a haven for fishermen and travellers, a monastery, a prison, and finally since 1807, a cemetery.

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.

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.

summer at last!

While New Jersey & New York have been basking in the summer sunshine, London was dull and rainy.

The caryatids of St Pancras Church

Summer flowers like the delphinium bloomed bravely in the face of constant damp, wet winds and thunderstorms.

But this week temperatures soared and the city changed. A sunny weekend led to blazing sunshine over the next few days and Londoners were ready to make the most of it.

Celebrating the Year of the Fire Monkey!

London is pulling out all stops this Chinese New Year! Outside Asia, London hosts the biggest annual Chinese New Year celebrations.

Images from Chiswick House & Gardens, via Time Out

The Magical Lantern Festival premieres at Chiswick House and Gardens this year, and is open until March 5th. This is the first time the festival has appeared in the UK.

quiet time, green spaces

One half of us is back in London, and the Wonder Wander Women are missing each other!

When we are in one place we always manage to find some quiet time to spend together, but once 'us time' is over and we go back to our daily routine it's sometimes hard to remember to give ourselves a little space.

Here are some of the places we visit for a little peace of mind.