Glenelg Road, 24th February 2009

Again I leave my house for work, again a blue balloon awaits me. I thought that the middle of February would be busy due to Valentine's Day, but I have to admit I'm surprised that the run of sightings has continued. The sharp demarcation in colour between the commercialised romance of red and pink and the contrastingly cold green and blue tells of the season's end, but there seems to be no let up in general. Perhaps balloons are bought in multicoloured packs, and with the reds and pinks used up over 14th weekend, the buyers pressed the icier colours into service in the days that followed?

Grand Union Canal, from Great Western Road, 23rd February 2009

This stretch of the canal has proved a prolific sighting place over the last few years, but that's hardly surprising as I cross it most days. Wherever this blue one started, it looked like its journey was at an end corralled into a thin strip of junk-strewn water by a floating plank.

Notting Hill Gate, from 452 bus, 18th February 2009

Although very close in time to the Valentine's Day glut, from its colour I'd guess that this is a random escape. I mean, who'd give a green balloon?

I was heading to work when I saw this, going around the west side of Hyde Park rather than the more usual east. Unusually I wasn't sat at the front of the bus, so had to leap forward and crouch between the occupants of the front seats to snap this. They looked at me bewildered for a fraction of a second, but this is London - no-one said a thing.

Waterloo Bridge, 17th February 2009

And more! And, even better, this time they're from a new source - my sister's chap. Cheers! Over to him:

"I saw them floating over from the festival hall, which gave me enough time to wake up from my morning walking trance and get the blackberry ready! just as I took it, a gust of wind blew them rapidly away, so got in in the nick of time! Hurrah! And bizarrely I found myself to be rather excited about getting the shot!"

Hurrah indeed... the Valentine's Day menagerie increases yet further. How many more..?

Edgware Road, from 36 bus, 16th February 2009

And yet another, a dab of colour on a monochrome scene. That all four recent entries are pink speaks of their obvious common purpose, although how pink became the colour of love is a more obscure question. Nonetheless, four escapes within 48 hours attests to the popularity of a pink balloon as a token of love.

Wikipedia notes (at the time of writing) that Valentine's Day is the world's second largest card-sending holiday of the year, after Christmas. It doesn't mention balloons, alas, but although the recent pink quartet still looks sparse compared to the utter surfeit of last Christmas, it's still the most concentrated cluster of escapes I've seen apart from that, so maybe the same holds true.

Vauxhall Bridge Road, from 2 bus, 16th February 2009

The seasonal glut continues... the dense (and unseasonal looking) undergrowth must have protected this for a couple of days, although how it squeezed in there between the sharp-looking blades of that foliage I can't imagine. Much as with the very first balloon, this does give reason to believe that balloons are a lot tougher than their fragile reputation suggests.

Brixton Road, 14th February 2009

And then more, mere minutes later! And again against a backdrop of sunkissed London stock bricks. This small group appears to have been dedicated to a lady whose name begins with M. I hope she appreciated them and lost them carelessly, rather than released them with derision to the chilly air and grasping branches.

Brixton Road, 14th February 2009

A pink escape on Valentine's Day - hardly a surprise but still a pleasure. Last year there were a couple rolling around Clapham on a flat and mundane day. This year I was walking through Brixton and the light was stunning; rich and warm and it painted brickwork a luminous bronze.

Glenelg Road, 11th February 2009

On the first bright morning for what seemed like weeks, I opened my front door for the daily commute and saw this mottled blue lying still opposite me. That, combined with sunshine that could almost be called early spring, made it a joyous start to the day. The previous week had seen a staggering snowfall, which brought London almost to a standstill but also elicited childlike playfulness from most. It lent such a rare and fleeting beauty to the city that I'd craved a balloon to snap against it, but it wasn't to be.

The snow was finally seen off by even heavier rain, which had made wet grey misery of the past few days, so this sun was especially welcome. This blue stands, then, as a harbinger of spring, although its icy colour mirrored the still-wintry air.

Vauxhall Bus Station, from 36 bus, 17th January 2009

Despite fearing being late, the bus was the only option as the Victoria Line was down. Just as well, as I'd have otherwise missed this pink balloon wheeling about on a wild night. I was on the upper deck, and was surprised to suddenly see a balloon shoot past the window, and such was its speed that initially I had little hope for its capture. I went for my phone anyway, and happily the gale whirled it back past the windows a couple more times, and I got lucky with my only shot. I did have to crane over a middle-aged gentleman on the window seat, which was a trifle rude, but he didn't seem to mind.

The bus pulled away straight after this was taken. And I wasn't late.

Stockwell Road, from 59 bus, 9th January 2009

"But the 59 doesn't go down Stockwell Road!" I hear you cry. It did this day, diverted due to the closure of Brixton Road, the reason for which remains unknown. The journey was tortuous but cheery due to an impending night of Lash with an old friend, and spotting this group lifted the mood yet further.

They were treed right opposite Brixton Academy, which has recently had its name changed to "The O2 Academy Brixton". What would Hicks say?

Chelsea Bridge Road, from 137 bus, 7th January 2009

Damn this is a bleak and colourless shot, and so bleak was the morning that even upping the saturation to ridiculous levels couldn't bring out the red in the red brick buildings. Well, not without making the rest of the shot look like a frame from some acid-tinged Beatles film. So bleak it must remain. I've tagged black, white and silver here, but for all the colour visible they could well have been shocking pink, lime green and Mimosa.

Apologies also for the blurred streaks in places. Freezing day, packed bus - always going to mist up the windows. Bah.

Bishopsgate, from 35 bus, 24th December 2008

A rare foray into east London, which is evidently as littered with escapes this season as the south, west and central parts. I've spent a couple of nights at Dirty Dick's, and a fine old City boozer it is too, but this time I was simply passing, sat glassy-eyed on the bus having spent a blurry night on a friend's sofa. We were sat stationary at traffic lights for this shot, which is just as well as had we been cruising past I doubt my dulled morning reactions would have allowed their capture.

Northcote Road, 14th December 2008

The glut continues... a multicoloured cluster snagged in lights on a very grey day. I think this cluster actually adds to the decorations, a fetching statement at the apex of the lines of light.

High Street Kensington, 11th December 2008

Good grief, when will it end?! It was never like this in Christmases 2005-2007. Maybe balloons are having their golden year. So popular that people lose them without a care, and London's street trees end up festooned with ersatz rubber versions of the indoor trees' glass baubles. How many more before the year ends..?

Edgware Road, from 36 bus, 9th December 2008

And more! A red pair snared in bare branches, tied and trapped together and still just inflated enough to lend a festive feel to a grubby scene. That festive feel is fated to end before the festive season itself, of course, and my daily view of them on my commute will afford me a clear and sorry view of their slow demise.

Acre Lane, 6th December 2008

But the day wasn't over - I left town dizzy with excess and glad to be away from the teeming hordes and back in the relative quiet of home, when I spotted this pale ghost of a balloon trapped in the branches of a tree near my house.

This sighting did at least provide an element of realism to the day, a more familiar feel after the madness detailed below. I don't have many night shots, so this is a rarity in its own right, which makes it all the more pleasing. Back to reality, then. Eight in one day and several more that eluded me... but who knows how long until the next one?

Around Oxford Street/Regent Street, 6th December 2008

It was a day of balloons. They were everywhere. I missed a few and didn't care. By the end I was so ballooned out that I wondered if I could ever take another one again - I mean, what could compare? The fleeting and scarce glimpses that have been my sustenance over the past three and a half years have been rendered farcical by today's glut.

It started like any other day. A red escape, the top one, flying low over sunlit buildings in central London, snapped happy as a rare treat. But it was a mere taste of things to come, an amuse l'oeil before the feast of sightings. The roads were closed and pedestrianised to entice out credit-crunched shoppers, and balloons had been pressed into their usual decorative service. The UK must now be in the grip of a helium shortage. So many festooned streets and shops that I suppose countless escapes were inevitable. I wonder how far they flew, on the icy wind?

So my memory is hazed by weight of numbers, and these are lumped together for convenience. 6th December 2008: Balloon Day.