Off Independence Avenue SW, Washington DC, USA, 12th October 2012

A long way from home, this. We'd just arrived in DC and had toured various well-lit monuments and were walking back to the car when this rolled out of the shadows on a sports field. Bonus!

Off West End Lane, 22nd July 2012

So it'd been a while... I'd seen balloons in this estate before, a couple of years back while crashing in a friend's spare room up the road. I was heading back there for a BBQ this day, and was cheered to see an orange imprisoned in the gardens beyond the fence. Oh the memories...

Harrow Road, from 18 bus, 26th April 2012

So I'm a bit overdue on uploads... this was now so long ago I scarcely remember it, but fortunately the street sign gives a subtle clue... It looks like a Domino's Pizza balloon, although where the nearest one to here is I don't know...

Off Gaisford Street, 17th March 2012

So in Amsterdam orange is just the national colour. In London, it's pretty much always due to Giraffe. Most of these have been seen flying from their various stores, but there's not one nearby so this is probably just a blow-in...

Kentish Town Road, 8th January 2012

Well, you go all the way to Amsterdam, and then see an orange balloon on your doorstep a week later...

Off Gaisford Street, 15th July 2011

Summer's usually a good time for balloons, but it had been almost a month balloonless before I saw this, just metres from my flat on the way to work. The building in whose forecourt it lies is oddly incongruous on this street, looking more like a dilapidated French apartment block than a delapidated North London townhouse like the rest. Perhaps a bomb landed there during the war? It would be easier to find that out than the origin of this balloon, but at the time of writing I know neither.

Damrak, Amsterdam, 2nd April 2011

Not one of the prettier parts of Amsterdam, and scarcely a surprise any more to see an orange balloon, but everything's a joy in that city, and it had been a balloon-free March, so this was doubly pleasing. The place has never let me down, for balloons or anything else. Bliss.

From South Bank Centre, 16th October 2010

And yet another Giraffe balloon...

Given the prevailing wind in this city, an area northeastish of here must be literally littered with their tattered skins. How far northeast this hub lies I have no idea - how far does a modest helium balloon drift before it sinks and falls? Perhaps there's a undiscovered field of orange tatters that spooks the bears in Novaya Zemlya. Perhaps it's a stealth marketing campaign by Giraffe Norway. Actually, I suspect it's more likely Stratfordish that's so strewn.

Monmouth Street, 29th January 2010

Back in central London for the second day in a row, I wandered between parties beneath these, yet more snagged in winter branches. The colours say "St Patrick's Day" but the celebrations have never started that early before. They were snagged outside a lively pub, so I suspect that was their source. I'll be surprised if the sighting's not repeated come 17th March.

Charing Cross Road, 28th January 2010

The theme of silhouetted branches continues, although reversed by the bright lights and only relatively dark skies of central London at night. Regardless of the illumination it does seem to have been a winter of snagged balloons, with none just rolling around pavements the last couple of months. Bring on the spring, then.

Camden High Street, 14th November 2009

And more orange! The source of these was as evident as that of the branded enbranched balloons before - a few paces further on there was a balloon modeller twisting various shapes. I don't know what this inchoate design had done to offend, nor whether it was discarded by twister or recipient, but I doubt it lasted long on the crowded streets of Camden on a Saturday night.

James Street, 9th November 2009

The Dutch do not have a monopoly on orange balloons, of course. The next day, back in London and hurrying through a chilly night to rejoin friends at a restaurant, I saw these above the crowds. No patriotic fervour here, though - these are branded by TGI Fridays, whose restaurant just south of here must have been handing them out. They were in practically the same spot as one seen similarly snagged over Christmas shoppers a while back. That one was orange too, although no logo was visible, but it was more likely to have been of Friday origin than Dutch pride, I suspect.

Amstel, Amsterdam, 8th November 2009

Amsterdam was always going to draw me back, with its charming combination of canals and happy confusion. There was a glut of celebratory balloons during Queen's Day back in the warm spring, but I wasn't expecting the trend to continue with the city mired in the clammy cold air of the North Sea autumn. Happily, though, my lack of faith was misplaced.

Orange again, hardly a surprise, and floating down one of the larger canals. So baffling is the mesh of roads, canals and bridges that any sighting in this city is hard to site on the map, but vague and hazy memory was here helped by the website of the restaurant in the background. We didn't eat in Zushi, but I was grateful to it nonetheless.

Great Western Road, 11th September 2009

I was wandering to the tube station chatting to a friend. She stopped to wait for a bus, I turned back to say goodbye and it shot up suddenly from the pavement opposite. She'd seen this sort of thing before so was neither surprised nor offended by my frantic grasping for the camera, and it was caught before it swirled away swiftly, while we parted less hastily below.

From South Bank Centre, 9th August 2009

And another an hour or so later, whose colour betrays its shared source. No branches caught this though, and it was a far more hurried shot for it.

Incidentally, three days later and some 700 metres from this, I released a few air- and trinket-filled balloons myself, as part of Antony Gormley's capricious One & Other project on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. Although I'd expected, indeed hoped for, them to be burst quickly by the people or sharp edges below, most were gleefully caught by children, who ran off with their trophies intact. And that was more than good enough for me.

From Golden Jubilee footbridge, 9th August 2009

The Giraffe restaurant on the South Bank has provided balloons before, so this orange's origin was not obscure. They're branded and given out to advertise the place, but although this was snagged nearby it was shrouded by foliage and too far from the concrete walkways to be legible, so its power as an advert was gone.

Hyde Park, 31st May 2009

That last theory can't be said to apply to this, sadly. Yet another sunny day, but for once my thoughts were anything but.

Somewhere in Amsterdam, 1st May 2009

And this one, well, it could have been anywhere. Somewhere on a dizzy, dazed and delightful amble through the city we stumbled across another, floating free in one of the myriad canals. There's no point even placing a vague marker on the map for this, so Amsterdam will have to make do with two markers for now, and only one of those accurate. I hope to add to that set before very long.

Vondelpark, Amsterdam, 1st May 2009

And another, hardly surprising given the sheer number around. I suspect its position becalmed in a still lake in the large urban park was the only reason it survived the night, safe from the tramping feet of the revellers. Whatever the reason, its location afforded a charming photo. The park is a veritable maze of lakes and bridges, and I have no idea of the exact one, so the gmap marker has been summarily cast over the park in general.

Thorbeckeplein, Amsterdam, 1st May 2009

I'd rather naively thought that spending the May bank holiday weekend in Amsterdam would be relaxing. Instead, we arrived right in the middle of the Queen's Day celebrations, which had turned the usually neat streets into heaving rivers of rubbish. Our long yomp to the hotel saw us wading though countless millions of cans, bottles, plastic glasses and orange decorations. Happily, those decorations included balloons. Thousands still hung from buildings, thousands lay as tattered rubber rags on the street. This one was caught between the two, a situation that I can't imagine lasted long.