The last Ethel update was back in October 2022. Wow, we have done a lot since: many more Ethel’s, we are up to 46/95, 48% complete. For those who don’t know the Ethel’s are 95 prominent peaks in the Peak District. We have also cycled the length of New Zealand, and are currently making a short documentary adventure film on baby loss, which is being edited as I type. We have gained charity status for Lenny’s Legacy, and have been…
We cycled from Auckland to Queenstown over two months, 2250Km via some amazing, beautiful locations, we made the route up as we went along based on recommendations from locals. We averaged 55km a day and elevation gain of 660m/day which overall means we Everested more than 3 times, this means cycling up Everest 3 times in total over the whole trip, total elevation gain- 27000m. For reference, our plane on the journey home was travelling at 12,000m altitude so we…
Over the last few months Ethel Walking has become an integral part of our lives. New walks often include an Ethel or two. We sometimes walk with friends, but always with our Lenny and Bhai. If we’ve not seen someone in a while, a meet up and Ethel walk is always a good thing to do. We have done quite a few recently and have almost ticked a third 29/95. But we are taking it steady and enjoying them as…
DECEMBER… we are dreading it! The 18th December is Lenny’s first birthday. Bhai’s due date is in December. We are facing another Christmas without Lenny. We are facing our second Christmas in a row where we are supposed to be bringing a newborn baby home with us and we aren’t. All of this amongst festive cheer – and all we feel is distinctly un-festive doom! Christmas is a hard time for all grieving people but for us this is going…
It’s taken me a few weeks to write this because grief is heavy, but here we go. We went to Scotland for a week at the end of August, this was partly to just get away and give us some time to grieve but also to acknowledge our 10 year wedding anniversary. Before Lenny had died we thought that we’d throw a big party, but obviously everything has changed now. Still, to ignore the fact that we have been married…
We did this cycle tour before Bhai Died, hence all the smiles, but its been delayed because. We have been feeling shit! We were feeling Ok, we were living! Oh, how naive we were. Over the previous few weeks we had been battling with lots of stuff, So I said to Mim Lets get away and do a gentle cycle tour, I had booked some nice places to stay, one place even did Gluten Free Pie’s!! (yes pie plural!). We…
Wow, its been a shitter, and not many adventures over the last few weeks. Since Bhai died we have been living in a very surreal world of shock. As this passes the reality is hitting hard. We have felt very alone and have not seen may people. Our lovely friend from Canada has been in the UK for a visit, it would have been lovely to share some good news with her, but instead she kindly listened to our tragic…
We have slowly been working our way through some more Ethels. Lenny wants to complete the by the end of the year, so we really need to pull our finger out. Amongst this we have had some good times and some really tough, grief is one heck of an emotional rollercoaster. We have also attended our first SANDS support meeting at Chesterfield which was really helpful, all the group were lovely. Thankyou for your support, Nicola at Chesterfield Sands. A…
Lenny, I set off with mum and dad, Bella and Mac and you had old lady Jessica (beautiful and loyal) on her lead with you. As we set off your dad said “it’s nice not to have to plan a walk”. Striding forward I felt confident in my ability to get us down Dovedale to Milldale and up Bailey Hill and back to the car. Easy peasy. I’d done it before. Dovedale is one of my favourites and can you…