Vous inventez bien, vous, jeune oisif ridicule

Vous inventez bien, vous, jeune oisif ridicule // Richard of York gave battle in vain // Every hunter wants to know where a pheasant sits 

At the moment I am following a watercolor mini marathon, given one by one of the teachers of an online art school: https://drawing-dog.com/ 

The mini marathon is excellent, but there is one curious point to it. Since I've signed up to it from Spain, the site insists on giving me lessons in English, rather than in the original Russian. I don't mind, the translation is good overall, and some curious mishaps make me chuckle a bit. One example of such happened when the teacher said that he works with a very limited palette, the rainbow spectrum, from which he can mix every possible shade he might ever need. The translator then said "Every hunter wants to know where a pheasant sits". I recognized it as a russian mnemonic for the rainbow color sequence, "каждый охотник желает знать где сидит фазан" and then thought "hang on a second". 

It took me a while to remember what the English mnemonic was (Richard of York gave battle in vain, of course), and later I searched a bit for the French one. 

And here it is: "Vous inventez bien, vous, jeune oisif ridicule", “You’re quite the inventor, you ridiculous idle youth!”.

It´s sort of worse than either Russian or English, since the violet and green start with the same letter - violet and vert. And it is in reverse in relation to both, starting with violet and ending with red. 

But well, this is French, after all.

And anyway, I prefer another Russian mnemonic for the same thing - "Как однажды Жак-звонарь головой сломал фонарь", "Once, Jacques the Bell Ringer Broke a Lamppost with His Head". It has a certain French ring to it, I think.

la lune en papier

L'un des noms communs de Lomelosia stellata est "la lune en papier" et je pense que c'est magnifique // One of the common names of Lomelosia stellata is "paper moon" and I think it's beautiful

That´s it. I can't find equally interesting common name in French, just Scabieuse Etoilée, which means Star Scabious - nice, but not very inventive. 
 

Poisson / fish

Le poisson ne pense pas

Le poisson est muet, sans expression

Le poisson ne pense pas parce qu'il sait tout

The fish doesn't think

The fish is mute, expressionless

The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything

I leave you with the ink drawing of Canary damselfish and the lyrics of "this is a film", to illustrate the omniscience of the fish. No reason.

Pictures of fish on Adobe stock

Landmark/repère

 Today's,  and the last, Inktober prompt is "landmark/repère".

In this picture there are a few of them. The one in the foreground is Gañifa rock arch, middle plane is occupied by the iconic Roque Nublo, and in the backgound there is Teide. You can't get much more landmarky than this.

Violin/violon

 Today's Inktober prompt is SUDDENLY! "violin/violon".

And here is the cat,  who finds himself facing an enormous violin scroll after all the hiking, trekking, walking and navigating. He looks perplexed,  but, let's face it, who wouldn't be in his place.

Images of violin on shutterstock

Navigator/Navigateur

 

Today's Inktober prompt is "navigator/navigateur".

Initially I thought I'll go with a more modern version of the word, but a reference image search brought me this beautiful illustration of   Saint Brendan le Navigateur, and I've changed my mind. 

Many other depictions have him holding a boat in his hand, and he is the patron saint of sailors. 

I must have seen the picture in one of the James Christensen books that we have, but didn't remember it.

Pictures related to navigation on shutterstock

Jumbo/énorme

Today's Inktober prompt is "jumbo/énorme (adj.)".

I've chosen to ignore the obvious "-jet" addition to "jumbo", and went with the source of all the jumbo tags - the so named elephant. 

The cat, who is not small himself, is there for scale. They both look so pleased because they were pen pals for years and now have the first opportunity to meet, thanks to the Inktober tag. 

Road/route

 Today's Inktober prompt is "road/route".

And here is the cat, on the road again, trying to tackle Harry Pregerson interchange in LA. The fact that I unwittingly put him into a left-hand drive car doesn't make things easier.

Camera (obscura) / chambre noir

 Today's Inktober prompt is "camera". I expanded it a bit to "camera obscura/chambre noir".

One day, a long time ago, I entered a dark windowless corridor in the new, but already shabby, building of our university. One of the doors had a hole, where the lock was broken out completely. The room behind the door had the windows looking at another part of the same building, the sun hitting it full-on. First, I  noticed a blurry regular pattern on a wall opposite to the door and then something moving.  It took me some time to work out the moving thing was a curtain hanging out of one of the windows in the sunlit wall. The fact that it was upside down didn't help to recognise it.

It was an accidentally formed camera obscura, very imperfect of course.  I'd never seen the effect before. We had studied a bit of optics at school,  and there might have been an illustration in the textbook, but it probably was a line drawing, and it was difficult to form a link between it and real life. My own illustration of the event also doesn't explain much, I'm afraid.

And below I leave a beautifully executed, but still not very explanatory,  version of the same phenomenon printed by Hokusai 

Scarecrow/épouvantail

Today’s Inktober prompt is “scarecrow/épouvantail”.

And here is Turnip Head, happy as usual, greeting you.

I guess this departure from the previous line of “adventure/travel” prompts is due to upcoming Halloween.

Which reminds me that I need a pumpkin.

Expedition/expédition

 Today's Inktober prompt is "expedition/expédition".

And here is the cat, bitterly regretting his decision to come to a polar expedition.  What is all this white stuff? He doesn't like this white stuff.

Come to the pole they said.  It will be fun they said.

Rust / rouille

Today's Inktober prompt is "rust / rouille".

It's a difficult subject to draw. You just have to believe me that ill-fated "American Star" in the pic is extremely rusty. 

Or rather it was rusty. Now it is mostly gone.

Camp

 

Today's Inktober prompt is "camp/camp".

And here us the cat, camping illegally in Teide National Park.  He really,  really wanted to see the comet. And cats are very good in ignoring the rules imposed by humans, as we all know.

Rhinoceros/rhinocéros

 Today's Inktober prompt is, SUDDENLY!, "Rhinoceros/rhinocéros".

And here is the cat,  dressed up as one.  As costumes go,  this one is not bad. Still, he doesn't like it. He is a refined creature,  and there is nothing refined about rhinoceroses.

Uncharted / inexplorée

 

Today's Inktober prompt is "uncharted / inexplorée".

And, of course,  the first thing that comes to mind is "here be dragons". 

Just one very large dragon,  really. He barely fits into this measly bit of uncharted terrain, and doesn't fit at all once he spreads his wings.

Ridge / crête

Today’s Inktober prompt is “ridge/crête”.

And here is the cat, walking along what looks like a path to nowhere.

I am not worried about him though. Unlike some people I know and love, this cat is able to turn around when he sees an abyss in front of him.

Drive/conduire

Today’s Inktober prompt is “drive/conduire”.

As I already stated, I don’t like driving in the snow. But I must add that I absolutely hate driving in the mountains, and avoid it at all costs.

The road in the picture represents how I see the road between Agaete and La Aldea de San Nicolas, here on Gran Canaria. It was and is being improved all the time, tunnels dug and some bits straightened, but it is quite frightening even now.

Journal

Today’s Inktober prompt is “journal”.

I think the cat is having difficulties with keeping a journal. His paws are just not meant for it.

Or maybe he is just tired. Looks like he is at the end of Artenara — Cruz de Tejeda walk. It is a very respectable hike, for a cat.

Grungy / crade

Today's Inktober prompt is "grungy/crade".

And what is the dirtiest, the worst for wear piece of equipment of any hiker worth her salt? That's right, the boots. And here you have mine. Looks like I need a new pair soon, if not right now.

Now that the tendency of the prompts is very obvious,  I rather think they meant this type of boots here, and not what I drew, the Puss-In-Boots kind. 

But well.

Guidebook / guide

 

Today's Inktober prompt is "guidebook / guide".

Which reminded me of a little episode from a few years back. We were walking in the hills, using an online guide by a very knowledgeable local hiker. It wasn't one of the complicated routes,  but it was a foggy day and the visibility was limited. We weren't lost, exactly,  just not sure where we were.  And then, in the verbal description of the route,  we came up to a phrase which went "and then you come to a farm with dogs that bark". Right on cue, a dog started barking in the fog, and suddenly we knew exactly where we were.