Personal

Fake wooden trees

For months now I've been puzzling over a fake tree that overlooks the M25 just east of Upminster. It's flanked on either side by electricity pylons, and stands adjacent to a traffic monitoring camera.

Is it a mobile phone mast? Is it unintentional? Is it art?

Tonight, in between a meal with new friends and a drink with old ones, I decided to find out.

There's no plaque, no sign, no marker. Just the tree. But it's sited in Thames Chase, a young forest just inside the M25 so I'll guess its purpose is this: to draw people in. To take strangers off the busy road and stroll awhile amidst the forest improbably planted within the bounds of London's orbital motorway.

If I'm right, it serves its purpose well. I just wonder why I drove past so many times before pulling off the road.