Fiddle fiddle

La maîtresse laisse les enfants tripatouiller la pâte à modeler de manière à ce qu'ils découvrent les formes et les couleurs. // The teacher lets the kids knead the modeling clay so that they discover shapes and colors.

Funny word - tripatouiller.

Do you remember your surprise at the physics lessons when they told you that all colors combined give white - and even demonstrated it with a rotating wheel of all colors? *

Our teacher didn't go into all that additive/subtractive business, so the lesson left me somewhat puzzled. 


For I knew perfectly well that when you mix all the paints together you get mud.

And if  we are talking modelling clay (or plasticine), the shapes you will probably get will be  sort of partial exoskeletons for everybody involved.

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* - I know it is not necessarily universal, but I discovered to my delight that Timur got exactly the same demonstration as me - in a different country and one generation later.

C'est une offre plutôt alléchante, j'hésite vraiment à refuser // It's a quite tempting offer; I'm really hesitant to refuse

I am not sure why he wants to refuse it, but well. Maybe he suddenly decided he wants to go on a diet or something

Dans le jardin

Les oiseaux dans le jardin se régalent des miettes que je leur ai laissées. //

The birds in the garden are feasting on the crumbs I left for them.

It is an ambush, it seems. But don't worry, the borbs are perfectly safe. The cat doesn't even have a mouth, as you might have noticed already. He is just being silly.

Nous devrions reprendre le problème

J'ai réfléchi à la situation, et d'après moi nous devrions reprendre le problème depuis le début // I have thought about the situation, and in my opinion we should go back to the beginning of the problem

Poor cat. But not to worry, somebody will rescue him soon. Probably saying many more new french words while they are at it.

Phrase from French Word of the Day again.