“Something You Did When A Child That You Will Always Remember”

This theme for the Etsybloggers Blog Carnival is really hard as I have so many happy memories from my childhood. I've chosen this one, as it is slightly different.

As a child my grandparents lived in Brecon. Many a happy hour was spent in their house, along the river that passed the bottom of their garden and in the Beacons. I love the area still, and it always feels like home when I visit.

Another place we visited was Llangorse Lake a beautiful spot, and still unspoilt. One day we drove up through the hills to reach the lake. Now there are car parks and paths to the spot, but at that time it was just a mountain road which meandered right and left as it rose towards the lake and we could stop and park at will. We (my mother, father and brother) got out of the car and started our walk. After about a quarter of a mile we stopped to admire the view. The lake was just visible and the vista was stunning. There were a few large flat rocks there, and we sat down to just drink in the view and the fresh clean air, the sun was shining and it was quite warm. My brother, younger than me and neither of us unable to sit down for long, began to run around, and I began to chase him. We ran around the rocks and then came to a sudden stop when we saw a rifle. Without thinking about it my brother picked it up and ran back to show my parents. They were horrified to see him with it (he was only 4) and some discussion took place as to what to do with it. For the time being it was left at the spot and we carried on with our walk.

It was a couple of hours later that we began the walk back to the car. We hadn't gone very far when we saw the figure of a soldier running along the road behind us. He was loaded up with rucksack and full uniform, and as I said before, it was a hot day. He caught up with us, and was very short of breath. He had lost his rifle! We were able to take him to it and he was so grateful. Returning to camp without it would have resulted in a Court Martial. He had run several miles to find it, and now had to run the same distance back to barracks.

It may not seem much now, but was really exciting and different at the time.