Colours and tastes of summer

Hi everybody!

Hope you have all had a good day. We had nice weather here, not hot, not cold, with sun and some clouds - I enjoyed walking along the Rhine, seeing and smelling the flowers, and throwing stones from the 'beach' into the water.

At SOC the colours this week are teal, coral and a splash of white. My piece is for SOC and Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin. I started off with an ad from a magazine, which I traced. I scanned the trace into the computer, and printed it out onto a printed page from an old school dictionary. I used Water colours to do a colour wash on the background. I used Portfolio oil pastels to draw the lines and add the shading. Where I wanted the colour thinner, I used a wet brush to take the colour directly from the crayons. This was a fun way to work, and using a good outline is a great way of learning to draw better. The sentiment is in German, and means " 'Just living is not enough', said the butterfly Sunshine - 'one needs freedom and a little flower, too.'" I was inspired to use this quote because today I saw that a lot of the meadows along the Rhine have been mowed to make hay, and I saw the butterflies flying around looking for the flowers.
I am also linking to Simon's Monday challenge, anything goes.

And here some edible art.

I made a batch of very special apricot jam yesterday. One jar has already gone to a neighbour. Instead of using cognac to 'disinfect' the fruits, I added a jar of rum raisins that I discovered in my store cupboard, and the usual mix of spices and chopped ginger. The result is a jam that is too delicious, it will have a short shelf life and  probably belongs to a species threatened by extinction....

Some impressions from along the Rhine:

And the meadows where the butterflies were looking for their flowers....

Have a great day, take care,
and thanks a lot for coming by.