Fallen Tree

 

The December storms in the lead up to Christmas swept pretty much across the entire country, and even in the Thames Valley we experienced torrential rain and gales bringing down trees and causing localised flooding. This tree had come down on the A4155 right outside the entrance to my work estate between Marlow and Henley. Its quite difficult to get a sense of scale when trying to photograph this kind of scene, so I tried capturing it from more than one angle. I think in the first picture the fact that the tree is blocking half the road shows it was a pretty big one and fortunate that it hadn't hit a vehicle.

The view from across the road in the second photo tells a  slightly different story as from 20 yards or so the scene completely loses any sense of scale for me. However it does reveal a little bit about the road. This stretch of road is a notorious section where cars put their foot down and do some pretty daft overtaking. The view of the bend is going towards Marlow and cars approaching it from Henley have a long straight where they really go for it ignoring the 40 mph speed signs. From the Marlow end going in the opposite direction cars can barely wait to negotiate the bend before hitting the floor, and even whilst I was taking these photos I saw a car overtaking in a dangerous manner ignoring a complete lack of view due to the fallen tree.