Pictures of the Cow and Calf, Yorkshire
It was a beautiful day in Yorkshire, and I went with the beloved and my in-laws to be out in the pretty.
I said I would like to go for a walk. I wore a long dress, and a long coat over it. The coat is almost down to my feet. I lift it when I climb up stairs, so as not to step on it and trip and fall.
We went to the Cow and Calf, and climbed up.
The first part of the climb is a paved path, with a gentle slope. Then people scramble up rocks to get the top of the cow (like the person standing on the top of the rock, against the sky in the second photo). The view from the top is beautiful. Apparently from the other side there's a gentle path back down.
So the mother-in-law who has climbed up this multiple times all her life, since she was a girl, was happily climbing the rocks. And well ahead of me. I tried to climb, with one hand holding my coat so as not to step on it, one hand holding on to a nearby rock, and one hand out for balance, you can see the problem here. Plus! I had not climbed it before ever, did not know there was an easy climb down the other side, so I was also very worried about climbing back down again, which is often harder than climbing up.
I tried to encourage myself, you know, telling myself that I'll feel better once I had done it and then I will know I can do it, but I was too scared. I was not afraid of falling. I was afraid of breaking my leg.
So the beloved noticed I was lagging behind, and came back down, helped me down and sat with me on a bench and made encouraging noises, and I did try again.
And the beloved was helpful and climbed a step a head of me to show me the way, and then stopped and turned around and held my hand when I needed it, and I got up higher than I had before.
the view was good.
I did not get high enough to come back down the other side.
I was still scared and shaken when I got back down to the path. It took me a while to calm down.
Next time: wear trousers, shorter coat, walk in an urban environment, or go to a movie instead.
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