ruminated on ways and means

Hola a todos.
¿Cómo traduciríais "ways and means" en la frase siguiente?: He motioned me to sit down again, and he took a chair himself, looking with a perplexed expression at the depressing garden, with its two straight bordered walks and its strip of grass, terminating in a dreary-looking summer-house not much larger than a dog-kennel, where, doubtless, he smoked his pipe, and ruminated on ways and means after the youngsters were safely packed away in the sheets.
No le veo sentido a "meditaba sobre maneras y medios".
Gracias.

Hi Antonio
This is what I´ve found for ways and means, you wouldn´t translate this literally...

ways and means


ability, capability, capacity, course, funds, methods, procedure, reserves, resources, tools, way.

Hi analaura:

...where, doubtless, he smoked his pipe, and ruminated on ways and means after the youngsters were safely packed away in the sheets.

I think this use of ways and means might be in a coloquial sense, because it does not indicate why he was pondering ways and means. Maybe he was thinking of a specific problem and it was mentioned previously in the text but it is not clear what he was thinking of in the subject paragraph.

Generally the phrase is used to describe the method and resources required to do something. EX: "We need a company that has the ways and means to fulfill the contract."; or "That school district doesn't have the ways and means to raise the level education of their students"

In an abstract way, ways and means could mean "things in general". EX: "My grandfather used to pontificate on ways and means after he had had a glass of wine or two." That might be the case in this paragraph.

¿Que opinas? Is there a Spanish phrase that would describe that?

Hi Vicente
How you doing?

Yes, I quite agree with you. I would like to have the whole page or previous pages just to see what kind of "thought" might he refering too. I like your example, it fits pretty well as an explanation for this question. I can imagen the scene...
Depending on the text flow, you could say in Spanish: "me detuve a pensar en la vida", "me dispuse a meditar en lo que vendría", etc. like keeping it very vague...

Doing well analaura. Thanks for asking. I hope all is well with you also.:)

Exactly. detuve a pensar en la vida is the thought I had in mind. Thoughts of life and how we manage generally. Something like that.

Now, as you said, it depends on whether there was a specific subject he was thinking about in the previous text. That would change the translation somewhat.

Hola, vicente y analaura. Por si aclara un poco las cosas, el personaje que está meditando en este texto es un médico al que el protagonista de la novela va a hacerle unas preguntas sobre un antiguo paciente.

Hi guys :)
Well, Antonio, so may be that is what the doctor was ruminating about, but since it´s not mentioned in the English text, I wouldn´t over explain, since we might deduce what it is but we are not positive... So, I would leave it vague as the English version.
What about something like: "y se hundió en sus pensamientos"...
What do you think Vicente?

Hola Antonio y Analaura. Pues si, ya que no estamos seguro, estoy de acuerdo con analaura. También me gustó "...meditar en lo que vendría"

sí Vicente, me gusta esa opción también. :)