Up up and away......

Honestly?  I don't think we could fit in a holiday however much I really want one.  During the last couple of weeks its all happened, my son got taken to A&E with a back injury and had to spend the week at home recuperating, which was fine for the first 5 minutes after that he was bored and drove me nuts, but as he works on a farm running around a field chasing bulls and pigs was just not a good idea.  My daughter has been working non stop at both her part time jobs, this being her summer holiday in between finishing 6th Form education but not starting her University course until the end of next month.  The husband has been working hard at both his jobs, the garage starting to get busy but just not quite ready to stop the lorry driving that supports the house and family he is working all week every week and I have been making glass flowers from morning through to night, which I can't complain as I love making glass beads and its the Stourbridge bead fair in a couple of weeks.

Last week, daughter and I went to visit my mother who had just come out of hospital and we had an exhausting but lovely couple of days catching up, eating nice food, drinking a bottle of wine - that was me and my step father as my mother couldn't drink due to medication.  I met my step sister and her lovely boys for the first time in 20 years and her boys for the first time ever; she is a fantastic cook and made this amazing cake filled with fresh cream and strawberries, totally yummy and totally devoured within hours of it arriving at my mother's.

This week, my Uncle, my mother's youngest brother and his lovely wife are holidaying in their caravan in Cirencester which is about an hour and a half's drive from me, but they 'popped' in to visit on Tuesday and yesterday, Thursday, husband and I took a rare night off during the week and joined them in Bristol for the Balloon Festival and it was worth not getting home until gone midnight and feeling jaded and worn out at 6.30 this morning when the alarm went off!

When we first arrived at the Balloon Festival we headed down this enormous hill which my Uncle did nickname Heart Attack Hill as we knew we had to climb back up!  Denise was waiting for us in a space just big enough for a blanket and two picnic chairs one of which my husband immediately claimed as his own leaving me and my Uncle on the bumpy ground, not that I was sat for long the balloons first taking off were the fun shapes...

 

A light bulb moment...

 

Chooks!

 

This Smurf was so cool with his enormous grin.

 

Dragons really do fly over Bristol in the UK.

 

 





 

This balloon was so fun it had a man standing on the very top, not a real man, a balloon one that danced and bobbed around as they flew higher and higher.

 

The last fun shape to fly into the sky was this huge sunflower.

 

 

We had an hour or so after the first balloons left the ground, so we wondered around and found something to eat leaving our chairs and blanket with a delightful family with two little boys that were so happy and smiley, my Uncle was smitten as he is a granddad with a couple of little boy grandsons so he felt most happy when the baby crawled over to introduce himself to my Uncle.

 

 

After some lovely long bright summer evenings the huge crowd of people that had taken up their spaces on the fields around the lift off area couldn't wait for the dusk to settle and the light show to begin.  No one was disappointed.

 

 



The balloons began to rise.

 

 

The music bellowed out of the loud speakers.

 

 

The balloons danced and dazzled whilst everyone stood and took photos and watched.  It was a truly amazing sight.

 

After the display and the fireworks had faded into the night sky, the climb up Heart Attack Hill didn't claim us as we followed hundreds and thousands of people with sleepy children and worn out well behaved dogs, we said a cheerful good bye to my Uncle and Aunt as they headed back to their caravan and the rest of their holiday before they head home this weekend.  Hubby and I came home, eventually, the M5 junction of the motorway was shut as was the suspension bridge that we need to cross from Bristol into Wales, but we arrived home, tired but in that, had a good time and feel quite exhaustedly relaxed kind of way.

 

The Balloon Festival is on until Sunday.

 

Just click the link to take you to the website, for the price of parking and a cup of tea and cake it was well worth the visit, although I would recommend a picnic if you are staying all day, the vendors have to make their money somehow!

 

Laney