Time for another weekend report: this one involves balloons and yet another parade! It was the annual Ravenna Balloon AFair weekend, and I had a nice time photographing balloons as they launched from literally my front yard (very large field on the farm). We had gorgeous sunny skies and 80 degrees on Saturday, with overflowing crowds coming to see the launch. Sunday, however, was a different story. After waiting as long as they dared, they cancelled the launch, because we had a lot of sinister clouds overhead and there was a storm nearby headed our way. It was a shame. There was still the whole carnival thing to have fun with, though, for the crowd.
Something new this year for me, was getting to see the balloon afair parade from the inside, so to speak: I walked in it with others who are supporting our friend Becky in her judicial quest. We handed out candy--no literature drops allowed in this parade, because we had a booth set up for later--and had to make do with humans and a cool car, no adorable dogs this time.

These cute pugs-in-balloons were part of the "Pugs in Paradise" unit in the parade. The parade theme was "Paradise in the Sky", and so there were a lot of floats with puffy clouds and heaven or tropical paradise or similar designs. My favorite, after the cute pugs and the very nice storybook float done by the local library, was this:

which used the movie "UP" as its theme. Here is a better view of the characters on the front of the float:

I mean, I thought this float was head and shoulders above all the others in terms of execution and quality. Very nice. It was sponsored by a group that helps disabled folks live independently, so it was a very appropriate theme too. (And one guy walking with them kept reminding us loudly, "It was MY idea! It's from the movie UP!" He was so sweet.)
In between walking the parade route (twice, because of course, again I didn't plan for return transportation) and seeing the evening balloon launch, I also entertained some kids at the fair downtown for an hour; I had been asked to perform my balloon animal-twisting skills again. That's fun, but also stressful being a street performer, when you can conceivably have hundreds of kids swarming around you. I prefer small parties to the neverending stream of passersby. You hardly get a break. And unfortunately, my balloons were old, so they popped very frequently, before I could finish making the item. Talk about frustrating! These poor kids probably thought balloon twisting was quite hazardous, since they popped 4 out of 5 times. I was disgusted with myself. I didn't have much advance notice of the job, but I could still have gone out and bought new balloons. I had no idea they'd gotten that bad, they looked fine at first glance. Anyway, it was a quick hour for some quick cash. Now Becky wants me to make balloons at one of her events! Oh dear, I am regressing into my college days when I was a Party Animal. I guess it's nice to know that skills I learned back then are still handy, but I hadn't ever intended to really use them again, just the occasional balloon for my niece and her friends. We shall see.
I'll close with some more balloon images; not much to say about them, they speak for themselves.



Funny thing about this balloon, it wasn't part of the Afair. It came gliding overhead while our balloons were still all inflating. It was like the Scout Balloon, sent over from an enemy camp to spy out our numbers and position...

Ta for now!

I had another really full weekend, one of those times where you need a weekend to recover from your weekend? :-) I managed to cram in: book discussion group at a bookstore, going to the movies, going to a hot air balloon festival, attending a graduation party and a horse show, riding my bike on a 20-mile ride, AND spending a few hours catching up on tv shows with friends. In addition to the usual horse duties. Whew! I am amazed that it all went off without a hitch; the timing was pretty good. And thank heavens for caffeine.

Friday night I went to Rollie's

( teen book discussion group meeting )I have more of a review of these two books on my goodreads.com page.

Saturday around noon I went to see ( Night At The Museum 2: Battle at the Smithsonian )

Went straight from the theater to pick up my friend Amy and drive an hour and a half down south to ( see the 2th annual Coshocton balloon festival )


This mosaic was made entirely of bottlecaps and lids! cool huh?


A first for me: seeing two identical balloons go up simultaneously. They eventually drifted apart, but for a few minutes they were a tandem. Very nifty.



I love it when there are enough balloons in the air at the same time that they make cool patterns. And I also enjoyed seeing some new balloons that don't come to Ravenna, like the black "Pancho's" balloon at the right. Some of these balloons came from other states or from down in Cincinnati, and so forth, according to the announcer whose every fifth word I could just about understand. [Cue sound clip from Charlie Brown: "Mwuh wah wah mwah mwah"]

So that was Saturday's events. On Sunday, I crammed another 4 things in to my day. First was a ( horse show )




I took some shots of my friend Sandy's friend Becky as she handed out ribbons to winners, so that Becky can use them in her judicial campaign; one of them happened to be our horse Baby Girl ("BG," registered name She's a Calamity) who won her class. :-) So I wasn't just there to enjoy my horses but also as an unofficial campaign publicity photographer, in a way. That was different! And the two meshed in this shot.



This is PrimeTime Player ("Primer" around the barn), an Arab who is leased by a young girl at the barn for showmanship classes and riding, but who is being ridden here by her owner (I think). He was just gorgeous to watch.


And this is Tanya, the horse, with Lisa, the rider, after they won a ribbon. Another Arabian, and I just love this head shot of her, even though the composition's not the best. Beeyootiful.




I went from the horse show up to Cleveland Heights (45 min drive) to ( ride my bike )

Here's my teammates charging over the bridge at the Shaker Lake park.


And this is the cutest little Canada gosling, enjoying the snacks at the lakeshore with his parents.

So, to wrap up, which I always seem to have the hardest time doing in these things, I got in a good ride, we had homemade fruit smoothies afterwards, then I drove home to clean up and attend a high school graduation party for the teen daughter of a library colleague, whom I've watched grow up these past several years as she attended teen programs and then got a job working at the library. These occasions always get me to remembering my own high school years, ugh, bittersweet as that can be. Then back home to feed horses, then over to Karen's house where I collapsed on her easy chair to watch the final three episodes of Dollhouse with her and Diana. Wow! Great ending to a great season, but it's going to be hard to wait til fall for the resolution! (Anyone out there watching it too? We need to talk. Wasn't Alan Tudyk amazing?!)