In the 10,000 plus times I've driven to and from work at Manchester airport I've probably looked at most of the trees along the roadside noticing their shape and form and how they change in the light and through the seasons. But this one in particular has caught my attention.

It doesn't really look like this. This is just the part that stands above a hawthorn hedge, but it always stands out against the sky and to my mind looks like a bonsai. I suspect it has partly been shaped by high trucks hitting it. I wish I could think of it just for its beauty but sadly I never forget that this little stretch of the A34 and the neighbouring trees are the sites of many fatal car crashes that have happened during the years I've used this route.

I really didn't get much time to set this up. In fact I didn't want to hang around more than a few seconds. This is one of the fastest stretches on the A34 and I can point out the sites of probably at least 10 fatal accidents within a mile or so of this point. But as I head home, up this sweeping bend, on these sunny evenings, the sun shining on the bleached trunks of the birch trees, the curving white lines, the green trees and verges and the zoom effect of travelling at speed combine to make me think this is an attractive site. Or perhaps I am just phased out after a day at the office