Higher forces than us

I got up this morning to the news that a hot air balloon had gone down on the North Island with the loss of 11 lives. Any loss of life is very sad and upsetting but for some reason this hit me really hard this morning. Why? who knows but:
1) It is close to the anniversary of the deaths of both my father and a very, very good friend.
2) I am feeling quite low and vulnerable at the moment (maybe because of the above)
3) I simply love hot air balloons and this is such a tragedy.

This is a bit of a cheat type shot - the hot air balloon is from a festival at Leeds Castle in Kent many moons ago. Have tried to bring an air of eeriness to it by over exposing and moving the zoom on the lens. Not wholly successful, but this is a photo journal not a professional site. SO there it is, my journal for today.

God bless the families of those who have been lost.

Edit (later) The skies in Murch were absolutely awesome tonight, just before a storm. This was my blip for reasons I explained above but if you're interested, check out the shots here