Silver-washed fritillaries have been common

It is a nice peaceful moment in the day to watch and be content for a while and let the problems fade. Nature takes over with its endless display.

We see a holly blue butterfly flickering above the lilac bush as its ancestors have done for the past 40 years. Twice every year the two separate broods display in this corner of the garden.

We watch for the purple emperor as it glides away from its perch on the outermost twigs of the oak.

When the female is ready she will join him up there in his eyrie and the pair will sally forth together and out of sight behind the house and go off to inspect all the willow trees nearby where she will lay her eggs.

There are up to a dozen different species of butterflies in the garden at one moment in summertime.

I have seen 23 different ones from the kitchen window alone.

White admirals fly through on their way to inspect the honeysuckles where they will lay their eggs. Peacocks, red admirals and commas fuss over the nettles around the manure heap.

They love those jagged leaves, as much as they enjoy drinking cider from the windfall apples in autumn.

Odd butterflies coming through the garden include unusuals such as the grizzled skipper, that drinks the juice from pansies. Sometimes a silver studded blue shows itself, for it has wandered from the heather on the moor.

One of the biggest of all Sussex butterflies then shows itself as the sun warms the blackberry leaves.

Silver-washed fritillaries have been common this year in the welden and downland woods. They are big and orange, you just cannot miss them, they take all your attention.

My photo here shows no silver, so how did it get its name? Wait until it closes its wings for a second, then you will see the silver.

And it is a wash, a delicate, dark silver, floated on with a touch from the brush together with a wash of mid green: not an easy subject if you wanted to capture its likeness on paper with your water colours.

She goes off with the male in hot pursuit.

Then he revolves around her in an endless, tight circle, until she accepts him.

Her last thing then is to seek out all those wood violet leaves around the base of the old beech trees, on which to lay her eggs.