Every August there is a festival of hot air balloons in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, called Festival International de Montgolfières. The first hot air balloon was developed by the brothers, Michel Montgolfier and Jacques Eitienne Montgolphier from Annonay, France, in 1782.*
Our family lived near this St- Jean. Hot air balloons depend mostly on calmer winds, 10 miles an hour or less. Therefore just after dawn or late afternoons near dusk generally have less wind speed. We would sometimes see a shadow cast over the field behind our house during dinner just before sunset.
It is always a thrill to see them up in the air when they take off as a fleet with the varied burst of colours in the sky. Last year I stopped on the highway to look at five balloons floating over Mont St-Grégoire. Such a calming effect when they float over you and you can hear only the puffs of air blowing into the fabric of the balloon.
In this prompt of Heeding Haiku with HA at MindLoveMisery’sMenagerie, we are given two words, chestnut (autumn) and balloon (spring). What came to mind was the festival a month before autumn. August is considered early autumn.
L’ombre d’une montgolfière
plane au vent doux du mois d’août
mulot fuit le chat
© Tournesol ’14
August wind casts
shadow of a hot air balloon
mouse dodged the cat
© Tournesol ’14
Tournesol dans un Jardin 
just beautiful!
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Thank you:)
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I agree, “Beautiful”–at first I thought the photo was of a heart, which was lovely–and the idea of a hot air heart balloon is something! I can’t even imagine the magic of seeing the calm “flock” of balloons overhead. Interesting that August is “early autumn” there.
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Actually I was looking up Kigo words (season words for Japanease form) and they list autumn from (mid august to mid December) so i sort of cheated cos my story is really in August and balloon was the Spring kigo but I never saw balloons in spring.
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Oh well, the marvelous thing about poetry is that it’s no felony to be inaccurate. I used to fret, trying to make sure everything I wrote–definitions, usage–was perfect; and then I discovered that readers don’t actually notice much….which at first was depressing, then freeing.
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I think the rules are good for the writer to find what works best…many times I just write free verse at my other blog. I tried 3 posts with cherita form…a new form I learned tonight and enjoyed at my Traces blog here is the link if you want to join Mindlovemiserysmenagerie has a prompt for each day. http://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/bjs-shadorma-and-beyond-november-22-2014/
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Rules are fine, they offer me structure–but I’ve learned they can be flexible to allow for creativity. Oooh, thanks for the new “cherita” form–that sounds lovely!
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Fascinating photo–lovely story, poem.
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Thanks so much, I don’t hold credit for the photo…I lost so many of mine with a defective portable hard drive.
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Oh NO, that sounds like a genuine tragedy–sorry.
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Yep, 8 years of photos…I must bring it in to our tech support to see if they can salvage it.
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8 yrs, oh gee! I’ll bet it can be salvaged–where would we be without techs. Sending up a prayer for restoration!
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I’m taking prayers…direct them to my Grandpapa, he does wonders!
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