Photo: Frome Road

I like to walk a lot, which given a rather permanent injury to my foot, can be a bit difficult at times. I’ve got a 17k course that I like to walk very early mornings, weather, time and foot permitting, that I’ll have to take some photos from.

When I moved to Adelaide as a teenager back in 1992, I had a different route which ran down from the north-eastern suburbs into the city. Frome Road was a welcome part of the walk, especially in early autumn when the leaves on the trees had just started to brown.

Frome Road in winter (2009)

It’s a bit barren now with all the leaves fallen and cleared away, but when things liven up, especially in early summer, it’s quite nice. It’s a bit haunting like this.

The Royal Adelaide Hospital is off to the left, which has a few unpleasant memories attached to it. My Aunt passed away there the other week, as did my Father in April 2003.

Up until my father’s passing, the sunny weather managed to hold out. The last night I spent with him, we snuck him out of his bed for a smoke and the skies were crystal clear. He’d spent a good part of his last years planting trees and if I was prone to woolly spiritual thinking, I probably would have made something of the leaves suddenly falling in large numbers the day after, along with the first heavy rains of the year.

I spent part of April 2006 off to the right, studying biology. Specifically, on the anniversary of my Dad’s passing that year, I was working on a cell biology practical in a lab that faced across the street, which naturally had to raise the topic of cancer.

I’m here doing my one and final subject of my science degree, which is only going to entangle and reinforce the memories further. Still, I guess I’ll be leaving on an upper, with fresh new leaves growing in the sunshine.

~ Bruce