Surprise in the Sky!

Yesterday evening I was putting some turkey burgers on the barbecue when I heard a very loud hissing noise from the woods behind the house. My first thought was--"why is someone using a blowtorch in the woods? That seems dangerous!"

A moment later my brain kicked in & I realized that I had heard this sound once before in real life, when we were in Cesky Krumlov last fall. So I started looking through the foliage, trying to spot the hot air balloon, as the volume of the noise indicated it was quite close.

Finally, through the leaves I saw a little flash of red--at that point, the balloon was maybe one story above me, right over the trail behind our house. By the time we got the camera, it was here:

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I think it went directly over our next door neighbour's house, close enough over the roof that it was a bit nerve-wracking to watch. We were close enough that we could clearly see the passenger in the basket waving, and could hear him shouting out to people across the street!

Here's another photo with our chimney in it, so you can see how low they were:
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At this point it had crossed to the front of the houses, we were standing on the back deck to capture the pictures.

I did a quick Google search when I came in, and found several references from other people about the CTV balloon flying low over houses over the last few years. I don't know if they're filming from up there, and trying to fly low for a better view, or what, though!

Comments

Jane Sr. said…
That's neat! Can you imagine have a conversation with a guy flying over your house??!?