Off the A4074, 2nd September 2012

So where on Earth is this? This is a very random stretch of road somewhere between Oxford and its Kassam Stadium, and I had been dropped "near" the latter by a cabbie who wisely advised us he should go no further. He was right - the traffic on the approach to the stadium was nose to tail and at snail's pace, and we beat the drivers hands down. It was the first match of a new season in rugby's Premiership, and we'd trekked out of London to see Leicester play London Welsh. The latter are the new boys, playing here for the first time, and I was supporting them as I'm from London, and, well, I'm half Welsh. My companions are from Leicester, support Leicester to an extent that makes a mockery of my newfound affiliation, and would bleed green, white and red if you cut them (not that I've tried). 

I'm not a great believer in omens, so the sight of a balloon in proud Welsh red (I can type goch better than I can say it) didn't fill me with thoughts of an upset. And so it transpired - a lacklustre Leicester duly trounced the exiles, and we departed two-thirds happy. On the plus side, we magicked upon a taxi immediately on leaving, which had us back in the city centre in seconds. Oxford has been kind to me before with balloons, and so it remains.

From Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, 25th August 2012

I was sent this beautiful group by Luna, who released the yellow one closest here. It is always a joy to receive them from afar, and these tell a story:

"The balloons are released to honour and celebrate the lives babies lost through miscarriage or just after birth. Each balloon represented a baby. This year's emotionally charged but beautiful event was held on the rooftop of an eight storey building with a gorgeous view of our capital city and the Caribbean Sea beyond. It was a cloudy, windy and warm evening. After a short ceremony and prayer our balloons were let go. Within moments they were tiny blue, pink, green, orange and yellow dots against the clouds. We all faced the west. Toward the sun which was now peeking out from behind the white cumulus clouds as our balloons carried our emotions away. A high flying flock of birds seemed to chase after our balloons and I imagined them as guardian angels guiding our little ones, and us, to peace."

Which is quite humbling compared to the discarded ones I sporadically see on the streets. Thank you!

High Holborn, 1st May 2012

On a sunny wander unusually eastward I came across this on a busy afternoon street. It rolled and bounced past the ambulance until a small boy kicked it once before popping it in front of me.

Kentish Town Road, 23rd April 2012

The cold wet April continues, good for drought-stricken gardens but the opposite for the city's spirits. It hasn't put off the spring ballooners though - this was rolling riskily down the main road at rush hour, but it weaved between cars until I got a clear shot. The black car at right here then rolled right over it, and still it emerged unscathed. Good luck to it.

Outside the Maths Building, Queen Mary UL, 10th April 2012

And another, from the same friend a mere two days later! In her words, "Literally 3 seconds after this was taken some loons leapt on it." She is a zoology student, but I doubt she meant Gavia immer. Stranger things have happened mind you (and not infrequently to her).

Pancras Road, from 214 bus, 8th October 2011

Not the prettiest shot, but it's been a while since I've got one in flight, so it made me smile. It was taken more than a month earlier than the upload date too - for shame! Well what can I say, it's been busy...

Kentish Town Road, 18th July 2011

It never rains but it pours, as they say, and it was pouring this day. The recent glut makes the old adage work metaphorically and literally: three in four days after a long drought, although London is in anything other than a drought at the moment.

Magdalen Road, 19th June 2011

Another gift! High on the telephone wires in a corner of London soon to be left by the sender, my might-as-well-be-brother-in-law. Will these last longer here than he does..?

Grand Union Canal, 2nd May 2011

A second that day, and a third in a canal in a row. This wasn't far from the last, a short walk down the Paddington Basin arm of the canal. Oddly, Google Maps doesn't appear to show that arm on its map, although it's plainly visible on the satellite view, so it'll look a trifle odd when the map next to this floating example shows nothing but dry land.

Borthwick Street, 20th February 2011

There's usually something of a glut around Valentine's Day, but this year I thought had passed without a sighting. And then these. I was on a long, grey and industrial walk eastwards along the Thames, unfamiliar territory, and these fitted the scene perfectly. Quite how the white survived the metal gate being closed on top of it I don't know, I can only imagine its deflation left it flexible enough to yield rather than resist. The decorated red was bound by ribbon to its pinned companion, and could go nowhere with the white so secured.

It had been a barren couple of weeks since the last, and I was delighted to see these, my most eastward in the UK at the time. I wasn't expecting the eastmost record to be broken three times in the next two hours.

Streatham High Road, 15th October 2010

Red and yellow together again, but these are a gift, so better:

"The balloons were outside the Orange shop on Streatham High Road. I was out at lunch and much to the bemusement of fellow shoppers taking pictures of balloons on the pavement."

From the one who was there at the beginning. It almost makes 63 months seem a short time. Thanks! I love the fact you still think about this.

Kentish Town Road, 16th September 2010

Initially I only saw the yellow one, which was rolling and bouncing up the busy street as I was buying meat. I dipped out of the shop to snap it from across the street, thinking it would be short-lived. That was not the case, and it dodged the oblivious or obliging crowds and made its way northwards as I followed, meat in one hand, camera in the other.

And at the top of the road there was the red, rolling independently in traffic and autumn rain. I hurriedly captured that too, as it looked even more precarious amongst the cars, but gusts and the wakes of the vehicles combined to see them briefly together, close enough for a close shot, which, by even greater coincidence, contained complementary-coloured post bags and road markings. Some you win...

As I left the scene smiling the yellow remained, but the red succumbed at last to a car.

Charing Cross Road, 11th July 2010

And two more two hours later! This pair must have had a common origin, as they moved together across the teeming northern side of Trafalgar Square, and if more proof were needed, they were both marked with a similar sticker. Their fates differed though. The red rolled on a metre or two and was picked up by a man on a scooter, stopped at the lights. The blue bounced a bit further north, and was popped loudly under the wheels of a Volvo.

Off West End Lane, 10th June 2010

Three in three days, a rare thing. I'd seen this one before but in red and next to a World Cup-inspired flag I took it for part of the decoration. When I passed a second time, though, it had blown clear of them, and was rolling about on the lawn alone. It won't still be there, I'm sure, when the national team's doom comes and the flags are taken in in sorrow.

Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, 30th January 2010

The northenmost balloon to date and the first not snagged for a while, on a day that looks like spring but was bitterly cold. Piccadilly was heaving on this sunny Saturday afternoon, and the crowds and blue sky had an air of balloon about them, so this was almost expected. Still a pleasure though, especially after so many dark ensnared Londoners this winter. Seasons change, then, although the skeletal branches remain.

New Walk, Leicester, 23rd January 2010

Two clusters in one tree, a novelty. Although that said, there seem to have been a lot of snagged balloons this winter, and the image of silhouetted branches feels familiar.

From Belvedere Road, 14th January 2010

Another flat January shot, whose desaturated bleakness echoes one taken just over a year ago. Once again the colour seen in real life was lost en route to the camera's CCD, but one of these was red, believe me.

Incidentally, back then I noted Pantone's colour of the year was Mimosa. This year, they went the other way.

Harrow Road, from 36 bus, 11th January 2010

Heading back to work after a meeting, the photo reveals nothing of the weather conditions. In Oxford, where I'd been, there was still a good depth of snow off the roads and the pavements were white and icy. London, as usual, is warmer and greyer than its surrounds.

I've seen plenty of balloons around this area, which is a mystery to me, as it doesn't strike me as a balloon stretch of road. Shows how much I know.

Montpellier Street, Cheltenham, 22nd December 2009

It had been a week of bitterly cold weather but this sharp bright day was the last of the real freeze. Still, beneath these cold-shrivelled balloons the street was edged with dirty snow, and the pavements off the main roads were evilly slippery rinks. After the blizzards and fog the sky had a pure clean look, and its colours graded evenly down from the deep zenith blue to a peach horizon. The low yellow evening light gave false warmth to the buildings, and far far further above caught the thin arc of a dusk moon.

High Street Kensington, 19th December 2009

Shades of deja vu - last year at a similar time of year I'd seen a similar cluster in a similar tree on the same street. I prefer this shot though, largely thanks to the lights.