Silver washed fritillaries

One of the things Vince and I share is our love of plants, flowers and wildlife in general. One of the things we love doing together is wandering round the garden or field looking at flowers or spotting wildlife, and on Sunday mornings we will often have tea in bed and get out some books. We have an extensive library from both my collection and Vince's dad who was also a keen wildlife spotter. We browse through the books finding out what butterfly/bird we saw, or try to find out what wasps and hornets eat. It's such a simple pleasure.

I planted two buddleia bushes in our garden this spring. They have given us hours of fun bee and butterfly spotting. We got quite excited when these fritillaries arrived. I took lots of pictures like this...

 and finally got some decent close ups, and (with the help of several books) identified this one as a male silver washed fritillary

 and this one as a female silver washed fritillary (and a bumble bee, unidentified)

Once again, as I write this, I am reminded how very lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place.