Twenty-fifth installment from the diary of my great-grandfather’s sister Alise, written during the First World War. When the diary starts, she is living just a few miles from the front lines of the Eastern Front, and is then forced to flee with her husband and two young daughters to her family’s house near Limbaži as the war moves even closer. Her third child, a son, was born there in February 1916. The family has now relocated to a home near Valmiera. For more background, see here, and click on the tag “diary entries” to see all of the entries that I have posted.

June 1, 1916

Third day of Summer Festival

The weather is very warm and bountiful, the sun is shining, the rain is raining. We have settled in quite well in our new home. We live, we work, we are happy with our life, which has again become so good. Yes – no. We still pray to our old God for nothing. Days go by without noticing, many of our acquaintances visit us, we even got nice cakes for salt and bread. A day doesn’t go by when someone isn’t knocking at our door. It appears that we are very noteworthy, loving people, and we definitely do not say anything against visitors, because we feel happiest in our own home amongst ourselves. The children aren’t wanting for everything, there is freedom, fresh good milk, we also have a girl who takes care of them and watches them. This give time to myself and to go to the town to play a bit of piano. I think about it and compare, and I think now I have the best living conditions as I ever have in my life. If only that war would finally have an end…