Taken on Sunday

This is for Chris, who was also taken on Sunday.
This image was taken at Lower Halstow, looking east across the inlet using a massive amount of zoom and precious little care and attention to steady the camera. That is why the focus leaves a lot to be desired. But I loved the lone tree on the horizon and the swoops of the freshly ploughed field. The pylon beyond the summit was not visible to my naked eye.

Several hours after my walk, just when I was posting my Sunday blip, there was a knock at my door and an apologetic police officer asked me if I had seen Chris from the flat next to mine and up half-a-flight of stairs. I hadn't seen Chris since Friday when he had held the street door open for me to hoik my bicycle in. I normally wedge the door open with my cycle helmet but he happened to be arriving home at the same time as me.
Later the police returned with a ram to force open the door of Chris' flat and I began to fear the worst. My fears were confirmed today when I arrived home this evening and was told by another neighbour that Chris had been found dead in his flat. He was 40-something I suppose, had a son of about 13 who visited at weekends. Chris was a gentle, softly-spoken person with no noticeable bad habits, a tad Eeyore, but only in a cynical, and not in a depressed kind of a way. Lugubrious as an art form if you like.
So I don't think it was suicide and I don't think it was an accidental narcotic overdose, I think it was just shitty bad luck, sudden and unexpected natural causes. I hope it was painless and I hope it was fast enough not to be frightening. He was a vinyl junkie, he loved this, and so did his son, and he had that motorway symbol tattooed on his arm to prove it, which was a private joke between him and his boy.