looks like the tree came of worse
Wow! that's seen some use. Get it changed.
Act of God unfortunately, or at least that's what the tree owners insurance would say. But I agree, a dam shame.
For me, the 'act of god' defence does not apply. The tree is old, and appears to be weak, possibly dead. If anyone owns a tree that is close enough to anythiing that it might damage, they have a duty of care to maintain the tree, or prune/remove the tree to prevent damage. This is why local authorities do a lot of maintenance to any trees they own alongside roads.
There is one near me in town on bend of a narrow road. It looks like a full size beech but who knows - its now firewood. How it survived the recent winds is anyone's guess. However local authorities behave more like vandals that people caring for their area. The number of trees they slash and burn is beyond belief. 10 years ago, my parish council had a right old tussle to save some perfectly happy roadside poplars. One day they suddenly had orange crosses sprayed on them. Due to public pressure, they were saved (eventually) and to my knowledge are still there.
Matt, don't beat yourself up over it. Having spent my earlier years as a mechanic and then not being able to give up my love of cars (love/hate a lot of the time) I've very rarely had to take any of our cars to a garage. Now, at 75 years young, (ha ha!) I'm increasingly finding the more physical tasks to be a bit beyond me. I'm still doing all my own servicing and many repairs - brakes etc - on all the family vehicles but I recently handed both our Panda and my boy's Punto over to our local wee Fiat Indy to get their clutches changed - The sort of job I'd have done in less than a day not so long ago. Initially I was gutted at having to do this but then Portland Bill (I think it was) comforted me by saying it's good to get to know and act on your limitations and now I feel quite at ease with being realistic about what I can take on (electronics has always been a challenge for me too). Trouble is my pocket book is rather slim now!I did toy with the idea even pricing up the tools etc. but my garage setup isnt great (sloping driveway) and even thought I've done a fair bit of car and bike work over the years I basically bottled out ! I had a good look at the existing below at the weekend whilst I happened to be under the from wheel arch repairing someone's idea of a repair. The car has 97K on it and I dread to think when that belt was last changed, it had visible cracks and I had visions of a detonated engine.
I sold one of my bikes at the weekend for quite a bit more than I paid for it and having been recommended a local Alfa / Fiat specialist I got it booked in there for today and just looked away as I paid the bill, they even changed he auxiliary belt at no extra fee.
Don't worry though I did a decent refurb and repair on the drivers seat at the weekend and will be doing a "DIN touch screen conversion next weeks end, may more things planned
