Show & Tell: Balconies and Grills

I missed two Show & Tell themes in April: Your garden/balcony and On the grill. Before I tackle Désirée's May themes (which I'm also late with...) I thought I'd tell you about our new balcony and why the grill had to move out.

One of the best things about our current flat - our home for the last 4½ years - is the balcony. It's 8 sqm which is pretty big for balconies.

This photo is a winter one (only have access to the photos from the real estate ad right now) so the balcony looks a bit miserable but I think it shows its size. We have rearranged the furniture from time to time but we've always had a "table corner" and one " cosy corner".

The summer look. I really likes the little buxbom trees we had for a couple of years until last year when they didn't survive the winter (well, we had them during the summer but they never recovered so we had to throw them out) and we have always had some pots with different kinds of plants as well.

Another winter look. And this is where the grill comes in. It can't be seen here because it's hidden in the little space of the balcony just around the corner. You can't fit much there but a Weber grill (the smallest but one) fits.

We've had so many nice moments on the balcony. Afternoon teas, dinners (many prepared on the grill), tanning, sipping a home-made iced latte, New Year toasts, etc., etc. In the summer the sun comes around the building after lunch and then stays until 6 or 6:30 pm before it disappears behind the building in from (the one we're moving into). On warm summer evenings it doesn't matter that there's no evening sun and if it's been a cool evening we have turned on the infra heater.

But now it's goodbye to this balcony and hello to another one. First we thought the new balcony was much smaller but when we saw the flat again two weeks ago (when it became officially ours) we realised that while it's smaller, it's not that much smaller. The grill had to go though (it now lives at the summer house where it's replacing a standard charcoal grill) as the new balcony is more built-in and doesn't provide that much airy space around the grill that we think is required. Gas grills don't let out smoke the way like charcoal ones do but still food smell (how much depends on how clean the grid is). So we figure we'll spare the neighbours of that.

Since it's built-in, the new balcony will provide a bit more shelter. Our old one, and maybe extra so because we lived on the corner of the building, was quite windy. So I'm looking forward to much warmer evenings here than in the old one. And if it gets too hot during the day there's a awning for some shade.


Note that this is the former owner's stuff - we haven't done it up as we haven't moved yet.


Another thing I really like with the new balcony is that it's located by the living room and not the bedroom and that the doors are much wider. It's like the living room extends to the outdoors.

One of my favourite dishes on the grill is tuna with "my" Japanese sauce. But it tasted pretty good tonight too - fried in a regular pan on the cooker! Otherwise we have put many a hamburger on it and also turned out very delicious beef and pork fillets, one in a chocolate and chili coating.

Apologies for the formatting - can't get the spacing to work right now. Argh!