August 9th 2025 年8月10日

👉 The view from my desk can sometimes be rather distracting. I don’t remember, for example, having ordered a coffee table……

So I must retain some fudoushin ふどうしん( 不動心) and remain imperturbable . I read this word in Japanese today and didn’t know what on earth it meant. But seeing that character 心 at the end should have prepared me for something deep. 心 means mind, heart or spirit, and I even have it on my wall at home as a calligraphy exercise!

I would probably never use imperturbable here in Germany because I know I would have to explain it. Here is the Oxford English Dictionary…

So there you go. Pearls of knowledge from a building site.

👉 There’s nothing quite like a spontaneous hike with friends. But with such a hot weekend a cool route is called for. So no to the open vineyards of the Rheingau or ruined castles baking in the heat. What we needed was a route almost entirely in the shade.

Those who can’t come offer you a colourful range of situations they find themselves in. The globetrotters: “I am in Brazil and flying to Chile tomorrow, otherwise would definitely join! The thinkers: “I am thinking about it”. The organized: “Sorry, I have a prior arrangement”. The unfortunates: “I feel worse and worse” (all sympathy here). The stay-at-homers: “I need a day at home”. The mysterious: no reply.

Well, in the end there were only two of us left. But there are advantages to that – flexibility is one of them.

👉 The route took us through the shady woods south of Darmstadt. It was very quiet – only the odd dog walker or jogger trudging by. Maybe everybody was doing their shopping. It was a Saturday morning after all. Nature stood still. Not a breath of wind :

At times the luxuriant vegetation was higher than myself….

One area of the woods was devoted to art installations. An imaginative “rain machine”……

A dome which teased the eye – was this art or trees? It seemed especially designed to be photographed to produce a deception in your camera…..

………….chiming, tinkling, boat-at-harbour-like tones……

👉 Climbing up a steep path, passing an observatory, we arrived at the Ludwigsturm (Ludwig Tower) on the Ludwigshöhe. From here you get a panoramic view of Darmstadt, and on the horizon, Frankfurt.

The rather impressive 19thc. tower has never been open all the times I have been here. And the adjacent restaurant was shut because the owners were on holiday (The summer holdays are a sacrosant period in Germany. My customers don’t pick up their violins, the Opera houses and schools don’t pay their bills…all because it is Ferien (holidays). Let’s not worry about that violinmaker who still has to pay his overheads. There is even a word for it: The Sommerloch (The “Summer hole”)).

👉 I forgot to mention one piece of art poised between two trees. It was made up almost entirely of oyster shells……curious….

Is this art?

👉 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.

See you またね 😉

nigelwruddock@gmail.com

The End

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終わり