Páidí • 6 • Leitrim

Under 7 Category   •  2026
In September the air balloon championships came to Boyle which is only a few minutes away from my house. Everyday we watched the balloons take off from Lough Key and then my mammy would drive us after them. We'd follow them all the way down tiny roads to sligo. Before they would take off i would Investigate the wind speed and direction so i'd know which way they were going. I'd check if it was going to rain too. I learned how to use a compass and a map. When I was Chasing the air Balloons with my mammy i saw a hare Running over a hill trying to run faster than it. then i saw a deer getting a fright by it as it came across another hill and then i saw a bunch of whooper swans flying above the balloon and they were saying honk honk honk. Maybe there were saying LOOK OUT air balloon! We're back! on our big Journey to ireland for Winter! i imagined what it must be like to be that whooper swan and look down on where i live and see all the hills and rivers and lakes and farms. i love when they come back to the lake beside my house. they're like an alarm clock in the morning for me and my sister for school. I wish I could fly up in the sky with the Whooper Swans and honk honk honk with them. maybe i can if i build my own air balloon... I had a balloon left over from my sisters birthday so i covered it with paper and glue. then i painted it when it dried. I made a basket from a shoe box. I used some material and Felt from our scrap box to cover the basket and then i used string from our polytunnel to stick onto the balloon and basket. Now I hang it in my bedroom beside the window and put some of my little toys in it and imagine they go suas sa Spéir with the birds when I open the window