Dear MarieThird daughter of Nicholas II today is 18 years old. During the morning I took a walk with all the children; we went all around the park. The weather was wonderful. At 12 o'clock we went to prayer services. During the day Alix came out with us. We worked in the park for a while. We chopped down three large trees. See more
The morning is sunny and wonderful. What a beautiful station. It’s clean. There are no sunflower seeds anywhere. No dust. A square. Hotel “Fenia”. A small room. An armchair. A carpet. I feel good-natured. I smile. I take a hot bath - a luxury. Coffee that I don’t make myself. Now it’s time to get to work.
A poet is a person who sheds - one by one - all burdens. These burdens, shed by words, are then carried - as rhymed lines - by other people.
We are expecting possible gas attacks from the Germans; and we have a great lack of gas masks, subject partly to insufficient supply, and partly to negligence of “free citizens” in their safekeeping. Germans retracted inward, abandoning some of their trench lines; they must be preparing a devil’s trap for us!