The View from the Towers 塔からの眺め A web log by Nigel Ruddock of life in Germany as an expat, with excursions to Japan and the UK.

Tag: Autumn

  • 🚏 Buses and Basses 🎶バスとベース

    November 11th 2025年11月11日

    秋。ドイツ

    They rumble past my house every day. But I never use them. Buses. Why? because I have a bicycle and am only 7 mins. walk from the station.

    But suddenly I have to get somewhere with my ‘cello. I can’t fly…..🪽………

    チェロを持って飛行機に乗ることができないので、バスが必要です 😄

    ………and the car is in another town…….it’s too far to walk, and the bicycle is a no-go..

    So a bus it is – a novelty for me. In Japan I would be filming out of the window. So why not here? ………in Langen?

    バスはたった5分遅れただけだった…すごい！💨

    ….and it was only 5 mins late…..I noticed how much more sociable it is to travel by bus. It seems that if you are standing at a wind-swept bus stop then it is legit to talk to a stranger in the same predicament. The passengers are mostly young people, local workers (“we always take this bus…we work over there….”) and old age pensioners. Plus the occasional stressed mother with a pram and a bawling infant 🍼

    I was smoothly delivered to my destination without fuss and bother. Well, well.

    ランゲンでの快適なバスの旅

    Sometimes it is the bus stop which remains unchanged when you demolish one building and put up another its place. Just down the road from me there used to be a detached house with a garden. Then came the developers…….This seems to happen a lot where I live. In the following two photos note the bus stop…before and after…..(use the slider in the middle)

    2022-2025

    Isn’t it funny how rubber bands sort of fossilize and get hard….

    輪ゴムが劣化してしまいます…。

    …what you need is some nice strong ones…..

    丈夫な輪ゴムだ…素晴らしい…でも待てよ…なんだか少し海の匂いがするぞ？

    But there’s something fishy going on here. They are not very strong and are very salty…….hmmm…..I fear we have a case of squid here….

    ああ、なるほど………….

    yes, “smoked mellow squid….great as a snack too!…” not recommended for use with stationary. haha😄.

    I thought I knew most of the palaces in my area, but obviously none of my walks have taken me north of Koblenz. Here I spent two nights for our choir rehearsal weekend,

    エンダー城。ミュージカルアカデミー …….🤴

    yes, I am a bass…..🎵

    ……..singing Mendelssohn, Balfour-Gardiner (yes!), Rheinberger and others.

    Our rehearsal room in Schloss Engers looked directly out onto the river Rhine, meaning that ships cruised into view behind the conductor’s back!…..a rehearsal break…

    リハーサル休憩……….☕

    Grabbing a cup of coffee I was greeted by some strange little figures in the corridor…….

    廊下に小さな人たちがいる……

    ………sort of close-up baroque you could say……

    …the terrace on the Rhein…..

    ライン川

    ….complete with a little “feature”…..

    For future reference I took note of the great cycle path……

    たぶん夏には自転車でここに来るでしょう。……………………………🚴💨

    It was my father’s birthday last week. He passed away 3 years ago and deserves a picture in this blog…..he was the best father I could ever have hoped for.

    Reginald Treacy Ruddock 1923 – 2023

    Thank you

    先週は父の誕生日でした。父は3年前に亡くなりました。彼は素晴らしい父親でした。🙏 Cornwall, UK, 1971

    Well, here I end my blog this week.

    Thank you for reading, and feel free to forward on to anyone who might be interested.

    読んでくれてありがとう！。ご興味がある方にはお気軽に転送してください。

    See you またね 🎻

    https://www.instagram.com/nigelruddock/

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com

  • 🍴 Fancy a bite? ちょっと食べたい?

    October 10th 2025年10月10日

    Fancy a bite? Someone does in these woods, but I assume they know what they are doing….

    お腹が空いていますか？誰かが……..🤤

    Because they always leave these guys alone….

    Perhaps the black and white pattern is a warning sign…

    誰もこれを食べない…..🤮

    Of course none of this is noticed by the passengers sitting in the cosy seats of their Inter Regio train which roars by…..

    乗客はこれらの小さなことに気づきません!

    I’m on a little walk between Neu Isenburg and Langen. Right beside the railway. My archaeological training is spurred to life by the sight of this bronze age artifact….a weapon of some sort maybe?…..It is well preserved I must say…….

    奇妙な物体

    However, on reflection…..hmmm. Has a rather late 20thc. aura about it.

    Back to those mushrooms. I prefer the fruits of trees. Like this one. The fig tree outside my door. The sensation of biting into that soft flesh – ever so slightly grainy and subtly sweet- so soon reduced to the mere stalk and then the need for the next one….

    イチジク！美味しい！

    Preceded by some Gyozas and a Kirin and I am in heaven…or at least in Takumi….(Mendelssohn Str. Frankfurt)

    天国

    Autumn………I must have been in an “flowing” mood when I drew this Kanji character…..

    まあ、ここでは翻訳は必要ありません！😅

    The turn of the season seems to affect different trees in different ways..The Acacia looks like it is getting a disease….

    …and reminds me of the time I once drew the Kanji character for tree (Ki), but realized after the first stroke that I didn’t have enough ink in my brush……😮

    ああ、まずい。インクが足りなかったんだ😐

    It is also easy to get too much ink on the brush. The ink itself has this extraordinary tendency to create forms – here the silhouette of a man’s head (?)………

    奇妙な形….

    Being confined to home this weekend with some bug or other I turned my attention to my calligraphy efforts. Of which there are many…..(!)

    今週末は体調が悪くて家にいなければならなかったので、書道を見つめ直す時間になりました…。

    With a well-loaded brush you can make music…🎵..The first character means “sound”, the second one “fun/enjoy”. Nice!

    🎵

    In the meantime I have found another little “bit of Autumn” ちいさい秋みつけた [Chīsai Aki Mitsuketa]…..This maple leaf has drifted graciously to earth…..

    ~

    What shall I cook today?

    Certainly none of those mushrooms near the railway…..Maybe some hearty European stew…? after all, the parsnip was a rare find in Aldi…

    Aha….let’s add a bit of Asian pep…..mmmm….

    In fact a warm vegetable stew was just right for the chilly downturn of the weather this week….

    寒い日には温かいシチューがぴったりです…

    ~

    The other day a Chinese friend of mine called round to pick up a ‘cello case. With her 3 yr- old son bounding about with far too much energy, I decided to dig out some childrens’ books 📔📚 as a distraction. Of course they were all in English, but this didn’t seem to matter. However, later on I found the book which I had been looking for the whole time.

    Lao Lao -🐉 is an old Chinese folk tale about a simple good person being maligned by a greedy emperor. The poor woman is forced to sit in a cold tower and produce paper cuttings ad infinitum (rather like the girl in Rumpelstiltskin who has to weave gold thread). However, in the end good conquers over evil through the intervention (Deus ex machina – rather like a Handel opera) of the dragon who roams the earth, who sees and hears everything.

    子供向けの本当に素敵な本

    The text is in Chinese and English and is beautifully illustrated…

    …..following the main theme of the story – paper cuttings…….

    切り絵

    …with the chance at the end to have a go yourself. This is a very special children’s book. I thought the story was probably an old Chinese classic, but my friend had never heard of it. One wonders what they teach children in China these days….

    ~

    Well, I’m told a typhoon is approaching Japan this weekend. And I see I once tried to paint the character. Not a good example of brushwork, but very fitting to the current season! Literally “great wind”…….🍃

    あまり上手な書道ではありませんが…

    And it also seems to be the season for that home-made plum wine…………..☺️

    Photo> 友子

    ~

    👉 Well, thank you for reading this, and feel free to pass it on to anyone you think might be interested. These days you can translate a web site instantaneously with A.I. or Google translate.

    さて、これを読んでいただきありがとうございます。興味があると思われる方に、遠慮なくお伝えください。

    See you またね 😉

    nigelwruddock@gmail.com

    The End

    終わり

    🍄‍🟫