Andris Karlsons built his two-story house - "cheap" with many helpers, now totally cost-free - on the  50 acres. Maintains a terrific vegetable garden with no weeds, fenced in (many deer around), collects rain-water in several barrels to water the garden et al. A neat porch at second-story level overlooking his downward sloping property. So-o enjoyable to sit, talk, sip and savor there...Below on the wide open verdant back yard were three picnic tables and two tents set up. A fire, burning early, to warm  the spot for the grand bon-fire at dusk. Help-yourself bar with great wines, Latvian beers, pop, juice.
A smorgasbord of Latvian foods, two kinds of sauerkraut and, of course, that special hone-made cheese for the occasion - fruits, sweets and... COFFEE (I needed so-o to drive home 36 miles late at night).
No klingeris for summer's birthday this time because Ilze got up at 4 a.m. to go fox hunting at Geneseeo, and she was too busy arranging it all to begin with.
    The young ones were engaged in playing diferent games, jumping in sacks, competing, running with eggs on spoons (hard-boiled or raw?), playing catch, and more, and, later, the adults joined in.
   In between, we went to pick daisies in the back woods and created the wreaths for all the ladies.
All the ladies had pants on. I was the only one without pants. I wore a long skirt. Before dark I took  a walk and the fire-flies were everywhere! It felt so magical! The air was just right! Perfect! Not cold, not hot. It had rained in the morning. While we were singing around the fire, the full moon  began to sneak up behind some trees. There was not a one mosquito! Only fire-flies...  When the massive fire burned down, the jumping began! Two guys and one woman "flew" across it as we roared!!!
 There were five individual jumps all together.
Time just flew by! Before I knew, it was 5 minutes to 11 p.m. (someone said). "WOW!"
As some revelers started to drift away, we decided to close before midnight, standing in a semi-circle around the fire, crossing hands, swaying and singing two of our special songs. "Put vejini... un Daugav' abas malas..."
      I arrived home 10 minutes after one o'clock. Cat was sitting in the window - waiting...  It was a great celebration full of joy, fun and meaning.
      You would have enjoyed it even if stayed only one hour or two. Several of the young Latvian women are married to Americans. One had a Lithuanian husband. There were three dogs socializing with us and even participating in the games.

Vairāk FOTO

Elga Pilskalns-Duff

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