Posted in This Land I Love

It started out a beautiful sunny, Spring Sunday morning. We were all getting ready for church, when one of the children spotted a hot air balloon out the window. We get quite a few of them over our area of Canterbury, but the novelty of them still hasn't worn off in watching them. They only fly on the still, sunny mornings, so it's usually a beautiful sight in the sky.

When we first spotted the balloon, it looked like this:


It seemed to be coming quite close to the house. We tried not to get too excited, because it's done this before, and ended up landing quite close to us, but not close enough that we could see it. A few houses and a large hedge divided us.

But then, to our astonishment,  it swooped round and came over the house in our very neighbourhood. The horses in the paddock went crazy, running up and down as it passed quite closely over their heads. It hovered over the house across the road from us, and almost seemed like it was going to land in their paddock.....



but the fence got in the way.

Then to our very great excitement, it slowly began to drop and we could see that it was going to land in the house next door - right across from our paddock. The kids all took off running, with me following behind with the camera.


I still hadn't done my hair yet, though thankfully my makeup was on, and I was dressed, because it turned out to be quite a neighbourhood gathering. Anyone who had kids (and some who didn't) had driven or walked down to watch the balloon land.




So we all stood there and watched (the neighbours who owned the land were actually not home at the time), and the kids were glued to what was going on and the big roaring flame and the puffing/booming sound of the gas with it.

It turns out there were no tourists in the balloon, but the 'pilot' was just clocking up his flight miles. He was savvy enough to get his little daughter to hand around brochures to all of us watching. Nothing like a bit of free publicity! And he might land here again, now he knows we're friendly.

It made us late for church, but we're so glad we didn't miss it!

Post A Comment! Send to a Friend!

Comments

Posted by mccrjill

very cool - what fun!

Permanent Link

Posted by gabbie427

How exciting!!! We chased a baloon a few years ago and were able to see into the basket and everything. Quite an experience for your little ones to see all this above and across from their house.

Thanks for sharing the pics!

God's Blessings,
Amy Jo

Permanent Link

Posted by a1health

Cool! Hope you have a good weekend!

Permanent Link

Posted by blessedmomof10

Oh my goodness!! amazing!! I bet your kids were so thrilled - how exciting!

God bless,
gloria

Permanent Link

Posted by Heather L.

My kids would hav eLOVED that! Michael's dream is to go up for a ride in one of those sometime. They do happen to be a bit pricey over here.

Permanent Link