From Great Western Road, 27th March 2009

High and fast-moving, this metallic pink reinforced my thoughts that either balloons are getting more common, or I'm just noticing more. I suspect the latter is more likely.

Off Strathleven Road, 27th March 2009

And another in practically the same spot, but its colour and tumescence are such that it's not obviously related to the ones below. There was at the same time just a few metres south of here a snagged and similarly pink balloon in a straggly privet bush, which I had held back from photographing as it looked intentionally placed. I suspect that this one was once part of that celebration, days over by now, and those celebrators forgetful of the inflated decorations that once marked the occasion.

Acre Lane, 26th March 2009

Being a mere touch over eight hours later than the photo below, only a few metres from that cluster's contemporary position on the other side of the hedge, and of a similar level of deflatedness to them, I suspect that this was once part of that group. Unprotected on the well-trodden pavement of a main road and unhindered in its travels by the weight of ribbon-bound others, I also suspect that its inflated life was shorter than those still in the shoal.

When I returned from work, indeed, there was no sign of this one, but the cluster remained, limper yet intact, behind the leafy wall.

Strathleven Road, 26th March 2009

A rare night shot, but it was hard to miss this cluster sat squatly in an alcove near my house on my way home, only on 26th by some 45 minutes. It was a windy spring night, but this spot was pretty sheltered and there was no hint of the usual frantic rush in snapping them. When I walked past again on my morning commute the entire cluster was on the other side of an adjacent hedge, although whether through wind action or human whim I'll never know.

From Westbourne Park Road, 20th March 2009

Hardly the best photo here, but hey - it was dusk and they were haring along at a fair lick high above the flats. It was the first dusk of spring 2009, the equinox having occurred some six and a half hours before this shot was taken.

It had been a stunning week of blue skies, almost-warm sunshine and a proliferation of flowers, and London responded with a wave of optimism and cheeriness. It is said that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather. Most people I know in London aren't English, but everyone was talking about the weather this week. Long may it continue.

Sloane Street, from 137 bus, 19th March 2009

This industrial brutalism is probably not how most people imagine one of the world's more exclusive shopping streets, but pipes need replacing and the world still turns. Above the incised street and below the bare concrete the designer shops still ply their pricy trade, but they don't as a rule rely on balloons to attract it, so where this one came from is, as so often, a mystery.

Kensington Church Street, from 452 bus, 17th March 2009

You know it's spring when you start getting shots like this. It was St Patrick's Day, but the colours reveal that this is no celebratory cluster. The Churchill Arms a few hundred metres north was festooned with orange, white and green, but they must have affixed them more securely that the erstwhile owners of these (and these).

Harrow Road, from 18 bus, 10th March 2009

I'd spotted this branch-grasped cluster on my morning commute, but failed to capture them as the bus swept past. Happily I had to head out for a rare (and boozy) business lunch, and they were still there on my return. The day was by turns bright, grey and rain-lashed, a classic spring day then, and it's a shame then that it was so bleak when I passed. But the red light and silver flash on the helmet complement the cluster so well that I can hardly curse my luck.

Brighton station, 28th February 2009

The last of an unexpectedly busy month, and my second in Brighton. The concrete ledge above it marks the end of the line, the southernmost point of the tracks. It looks a fairly sheltered spot so it may well have lasted a while, but I had to run for the train on my return journey, so didn't have time to see if it was still there. Annoyingly that dash was rendered meaningless as the train I dashed to broke down at Haywards Heath.