Hot Air Balloon Over Skytop Farm Pond

I was out and about earlier than usual on this morning, and there was a special treat waiting for me that I absolutely would NOT have seen if I hadn't been there exactly when I was. Don't you love it when that happens?

I was driving by Skytop Farm Pond, which you've seen occasionally on these pages. And I looked up in the sky and saw a lovely hot air balloon! Even better, its reflection could be seen on the pond. So of course, I pulled over for a few photos, as the cows in the nearby field looked on.

It reminded me of something. A few years ago, my oldest sister and I decided that we each had only ONE thing on our life's bucket list, and that was to take a ride in a hot air balloon. And so she bought us tickets and we did it. (Which is exactly what you should do with bucket-list items: do them NOW!) We had a marvelous time and I told everyone all about it here.

I took many photos on that day, but there was one shot I missed. There was a little pond near our flight path and for the life of me, I was dying for a reflection shot of our balloon in the water. But the pilot told us he could only control whether we went up or down, and the winds would decide the rest. So we were not able to fly over the pond and I did not get the balloon reflection shot. But today I did! I got it, sister! See? I got it!

The soundtrack: Bette Midler, Wind Beneath My Wings.