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.

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.