This week I allowed myself to take a break and relax, and it happened to coincide with the most beautiful weather we have seen in months. Spring finally came to Aachen! So I was determined to spend as much of the week outdoors as possible.
Over the weekend we went to the Bauhaus and stocked up on supplies, and on Monday I got started cleaning our balcony. The balcony was a mess — we hadn’t used it much in the past year. (We also have a roof terrace, which holds our grill and got most of our attention last summer.) We had inherited over half a dozen terracotta pots from the previous tenant, along with a teak bench and table. Needless to say, after a year of neglect the patio furniture was looking a bit sad:
The furniture was weathered and even a little mossy, given the copious shade the balcony gets in the afternoon. I started cleaning, sanding, and finally applying some teak oil to the wood. In my recklessness, I didn’t bother to protect my hands — and I paid by puncturing myself with a centimeter-long splinter while I was sanding. Thankfully, after a lot of grimacing and whining, I pulled it out and it seems to be healing just fine. I even put on gloves after that.
And all of the hard work was totally worth it. It doesn’t look as bright and new as I was hoping — the back of the bench was the most sheltered and looks the best right now — but it looks way better than it did before:
We also put up a couple planters on the balcony railing, with seeds that will hopefully sprout into basil, dill, rosemary, parsley, and chives. They aren’t much to look at yet, though. I even started to clean the terracotta pots, and with a little elbow grease and some sunlight from sitting on the terrace upstairs, I think they’ll turn out just fine. I’m hoping to bring a few of those back down to the balcony to hold some lavender and other flowers.
The balcony still isn’t the most beautiful part of the apartment, but I am starting to actually like it. My desk is now sitting in front of the window that looks out on the balcony, so I appreciate this week’s improvements. I can see myself going out there with coffee to take breaks as the weather gets consistently warmer and my new plants start to grow.
Expat Linguist 
You did an amazing job of brushing up the patio furniture! You must’ve been so tired after all that! And that splinter! – Ouch! I hate splinters. I was sitting on a wooden bench at a Currywurst place in Munich a few weeks ago, and suddenly I howled in pain and my husband thought I was being silly. But a splinter from the bench managed to stab itself through my jeans and into my leg, and it was so hard to get a grip on it to pull it out! I bet everyone in the restaurant just thought I was crazy… or that I liked feeling up my own leg continuously… =s The weather was super nice in Würzburg the past few days too, but it’s back to being cold today, and it’s only getting colder over the weekend! So sad!