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.

Chandos Place, 19th April 2009

Back in London later that afternoon, but there was no let-up. It was a rare moment of being incommunicado, as my phone battery had died immediately after my arrival back in London. I was meeting friends for dinner but the plan was on a text message and I only had a vague memory of where we were meeting - I knew the restaurant began with "W" and the street had a "Chandos" in it.

Hopefully, I wandered to the Chandos part of town looking out for a restaurant beginning with "W". I was walking idly looking up, and there suddenly was a red bunch hanging in my eyeline. So mentally fixated on Ws and dead phones was I that I very nearly forgot to take a photo, but fished my bar camera from my pocket to grab the day's fourth sighting.

Even better, I ran into my friends, or vice versa anyway. I'd just taken my gaze down from this cluster when I was hailed from across the road. They were loitering outside the restaurant, and had seen a man taking photos of balloons. One said to me, "We were wondering what someone was doing taking a photo of balloons when I twigged it was you". That made me smile as much as finding them.

Incidentally, the restaurant was called Wahaca, and decent it was too.

George Street, Oxford, 19th April 2009

So it was getting more surprising by now - there haven't been many hat tricks, and to see three balloons in a couple of hours is a rare thing indeed. Only that ludicrous day in London matches this, then, and that was a festive retail party around the country's busiest shopping street, not a shires town on a Sunday afternoon.

I'd been thinking that London must be covered in balloons for me to see them so often. Perhaps it's not just London, perhaps it's the whole country? How many balloons are out there?

Off Queen Street, Oxford, 19th April 2009

And I wasn't even that surprised to see a second a few minutes later. Some days just have such a public feeling of bonhomie and celebration that balloons are inevitable, and few things bring out public joy in England than a sunny spring day.

More surprising is that this street, this square indeed, isn't marked on Google Maps. I don't know Oxford well so I don't know the name of the square, but I know where it was on a map, and if you have a look at the map you'll see the area has no name, and that even streetview shows a building site. A new square then. Its makers would be happy I'm sure, as it was bustling and cheery.

Queen Street, Oxford, 19th April 2009

A rare foray outside London, celebrating both the marriage and pregnancy of some old schoolfriends, but this red heart balloon was nothing to do with us. It was a glorious spring weekend and spirits were high across the sun-drenched town, and there was a balloon air about the place. I wasn't overly surprised when I saw this, then, but it was still a joy.

Brixton Road, 16th April 2009

My inability to get out of bed compelled me to take the tube to work, and I was steeling myself for a viewless commute when this blue brightened my journey.

And yes those are my feet in the background - quite what I'm doing with them I don't know.

Strathleven Road, 12th April 2009

Among the front-runners for the most deflated balloon, I had to tread on this one to confirm its status: diminutive but entire. It was a grey, calm and mild Easter Day, which in the absence of both faith and egg-appreciation passed like any other Sunday. For all their usual festive work it seems balloons have never been big at Easter, so I suspect this was just a random, and it's safe to say it wasn't resurrected.

Barry Road, 9th April 2009

It had been a couple of weeks, which after the rich seam of the winter was a surprising wait. Perhaps inflatable decorations just don't do the job when people are on a natural high due to light evenings and soft-leaved trees. Whatever, this sturdy blue was a welcome sighting.

It was the first time I'd ever been to this corner of London too, visiting friends who'd just moved to the area. I'd just arrived and they were in the pub behind me, so they didn't see me snap this on my way in. I didn't want to keep them waiting, of course, and it was just a happy coincidence that the passing van matched the salt box in that fleeting moment.

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.