Herengracht, from Thorbeckeplein, Amsterdam, 1st January 2012

I was in Amsterdam again seeing dear friends for new year, these were spotted in a new year's day daze, wandering dumbstruck through the streets amidst the detritus of the night before. A few years ago I arrived unknowing on Queen's Day and was agog at the carnage. On new year's eve it was the fireworks that astonished and shocked. All on the streets seemed to have them: bangers everywhere, and irregularly but frequently the chatter of loud explosions was shattered by a deep and resonant boom that shook windows, set off car alarms and scattered nearby revellers. By new year's day, the streets were strewn with their red wrappings and the charred fat tubes of the more substantial.

The colour of these matches the boat's covering, which is a charming coincidence and rare, as Amsterdam for me has been a city of orange balloons.

Strand on the Green, 20th November 2011

When the seasons change, I hope for a balloon that will reflect it. When it snows I crave the snowbound, in summer I desire them atop sharp deep shadows and when it's spring I want, I dunno, crocuses or daffodils or something. Anyway, in autumn, this is pretty much the ideal shot. I leapt.

I was on a Sunday morning stroll westwards along the river, my first Sunday stroll for a while, and they've served me well before. This time, oddly like the last, London was submerged beneath fog, so dense that for much of our amble the opposite riverbank was invisible. But the sun came out for this and for lunch, and illuminated balloon, leaves and a tasty pie. We stayed in the pub all afternoon while the fog descended again, and left to haloed streetlights, giggling and car crashes.

La Rochelle harbour, from Quai Louis Durand, France, 12th October 2011

Always nice to see them away from London. These two were floating in a channel of the harbour, to which it's connected by the large doors behind. The light was just fading so this was a stroke of luck, as they all are. Although these were seen over a month ago, there's been nothing since. I've missed chances though. London is getting darker every day, which doesn't make it easier to spot them. I hope for a change of fortunes soon...

Pancras Road, from 214 bus, 8th October 2011

Not the prettiest shot, but it's been a while since I've got one in flight, so it made me smile. It was taken more than a month earlier than the upload date too - for shame! Well what can I say, it's been busy...

Off Fairfax Road, from 31 bus, 22nd September 2011

You go a day shy of five months without a balloon from a bus, then there's two in a week. A different route to work , and one beset by diversions and roadworks. At least I didn't have to get up for this one.

Kentish Town Road, from 134 bus, 16th September 2011

A fleeting shot this, and oddly the first from a bus for a while - it's not like I've been using them any less recently. I'd barely taken my seat when I saw this, and as I wasn't at the front I had to rise quickly again to get it.

Kentish Town Road, 16th August 2011

This metal cage is the covering to an abandoned stairwell down to what used to be South Kentish Town tube station, which closed in 1924. It is now a pit collecting litter, while the beautiful building across the road, which was once the ticket office, is now a branch of Cash Converters.

I walk past this spot most days, and with more than a passing interest - in the spring I surreptitiously hung a hanging basket from the central strut above these bars, which has bloomed profusely all summer with red Impatiens (at least when I've watered it enough). This time I was wandering home from an abortive attempt at exercise with my flatmate, and we'd stopped to pour the contents of our water bottles into the soil. He is far taller than I am (I stuck a bottle to a stick for when I had to water it alone), so while he was drenching the basket unaided, I watched on and around and noticed this yellow below, matching the plasticked chain and the sign beneath. The plant flowers still, although surely not for much longer, for London grows autumnal, and Impatiens does not.

St Andrew's School, West Moorings, Trinidad & Tobago, 14th August 2011

From very close to work to very far afield: another gift from the Caribbean - thanks again Luna! Here's how:

"I attended a Family Day hosted by an NGO called Macaroni Kid Trinidad. It is a website and e-newsletter for parents across Trinidad and Tobago which promotes the idea of “Family First” by highlighting opportunities for families to reconnect via activities, events and local attractions. Instead of lamenting our social ills and blaming “the demise of the family”, they aim to do something positive to change the world we're leaving to our children. It was an amazing fun filled day, with tons of stuff for kids and adults alike. There were wet and dry bouncy castles, face painting, arts and crafts, games, food, live bands, and nature exhibits with live animals. My favourite part of the day was when they let loose onto the field 110 bouncy balls! The kids really enjoyed that. As with most kid related events, by the time evening fell and it was time to go home, the inevitable doomed balloon was spotted. At the back of one of the school buildings, next to the car park and sullied by dirty water a forlorn purple balloon sat. This balloon wasn't making it home with a kid."

Indeed not, but you found it and so so did I. It can't have crossed the mind of whoever inflated it for decoration that day that it would end its tumescent life in a gutter, on a camera and then blogged thousands of miles away. Random happiness amidst the chaos around us both.

Off Harrow Road, 1st August 2011

I thought a short few days ago that I'd never see one closer to work than this one. I was wrong. This is only closer by a few metres, but those few metres again would have placed it inside the office itself. Another one of those coincidences then, two in the forecourt in a fortnight. I've worked there since I started this blog, and a long time before that too - curious.

Regents Canal, Camden, 20th July 2011

A rare gift and a rarer grey, although the canals are proving productive recently. Although this is less than a mile from my flat, and was taken by one I see as much as realistically possible, I wasn't there to take it myself. I'm delighted by the consideration, as ever.

Kentish Town Road, 18th July 2011

It never rains but it pours, as they say, and it was pouring this day. The recent glut makes the old adage work metaphorically and literally: three in four days after a long drought, although London is in anything other than a drought at the moment.

Regents Canal, from Kentish Town Road, 17th July 2011

I didn't even notice this small deflated example at first, I was admiring the streaks of algae in the canal by the lock. So it was a bonus one really, and yet another example of a canal-bound blue. What is it about the canals that attracts blue balloons..?

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.

Off Harrow Road, 20th June 2011

Some have been close to home, none had been this close to work before. I let the door slap happily shut behind me as I left into the rain, and before I'd even stretched out my umbrella I spotted this, sat hymenopteran beneath a car in the modest car park. It was small, shadowed and sorry, but I love it regardless, and was very glad the overhanging roof provided shelter for the shot.

Magdalen Road, 19th June 2011

Another gift! High on the telephone wires in a corner of London soon to be left by the sender, my might-as-well-be-brother-in-law. Will these last longer here than he does..?

Off Av. 5 de Outubro, Olhao, Portugal, 4th June 2011

A busy morning at the market, which means this shot may need a bit of a longer look than most. We'd stocked up on fish and were easing into the morning with a coffee when this rolled into view. Unlike most, its origin was clear - on a pedestal not ten metres away stood a tall man dressed in a tight white cloak with a white-painted face, clutching a handful of balloons that he was handing to children. There were a few of those living statue people around too, standing very still in metallic-painted clothes and skin to attract children and their Euro cents, so he may have been part of that odd band, or unrelated, but whatever, he had a fair few balloons.

The children, and there were many, lost interest in their balloons quickly after having been handed them, and that and the sea breeze made it very likely there'd be an escape. I had my camera out ready for this, feigning interest in architecture and swallows to my companions, until one rolled and bounced away and into the crowds. It didn't last long, under their tables and feet.

Wellington Street, 3rd June 2011

A second grounded yellow in a row, but I didn't take this one myself, and I was a long way south of the scene at the time. So thanks then to my mother, whose enthusiasm for this whimsy evidently knows as few bounds as my own.

I've also just noticed that this is the 100th grounded balloon. Mercy. I don't know whether to salute the pavilion or just weep. That's in just shy of six years. How long before 200, then..?

Off Harrow Road, 26th May 2011

Another leap off a bus, this time only one stop early, but I was only going to work and was in no danger of being late, so it was hardly that big a deal. It would have seemed a lot more annoying had I not got it though - I had time for one snap only before a small gust took it behind the wall to its right here, and with no way into the estate past the tough-looking barriers, my angles were gone and it remained out of sight until I decided to walk to the office.