Up, up and away

I resorted to taking photos of the resident wood pigeons earlier, as I wasn't sure I'd get anything else today. Then, while I was on the common with the dogs around 4pm, a hot air balloon passed overhead. I was a bit surprised to see it up there on as murky a day as today but it occurred to me that it would make a good photo opportunity, with the white balloon against the grey/white sky. However, I'd left my bridge camera in the car and the balloon went off over the trees and disappeared before we made it to the end of our route.

Then, while driving home, I saw it again, going at quite some speed over the golf course, so I turned up the driveway to Champney's and tracked it. It started veering away so I tried to pull over into the gateway of a field but was thwarted by a farmer coming through with his tractor and then faffing around with the gate. By the time he'd got out of the way the balloon had gone again so I gave up and headed homewards.

As I drove into our estate, low and behold, there it was again! It seemed to be heading towards the village centre so I gave up again. However, when I got back to our road, there it was again! So I parked the car, left the dogs in the boot and legged it indoors, grabbed my DSLR and managed to a shot of it as it emerged from behind the roofs down the road and floated on past, then disappeared into the cloud. I hope they managed to land safely...

And then, just as I was going get the dogs their dinner, I noticed this chap, who had realised I'd replenished the bird feeders today. I cornered him down the side of the house but he didn't hang around.

Blips: sometimes they're like buses and three come along at once.