Country diary: A quiet morning on the buddleia bush

I continued to sit patiently, and soon one of my favourites from among the lepidoptera – the peacock, four-eyed to warn off its predators – hustled into view, fresh from feeding among a bed of stinging nettles, the young shoots of which I’m steadily cropping for the making of soup. The peacock made directly for the buddleia and settled down to probe for nectar, the gorgeous eye patterns of its upper wings clearly in view (the lower sides are dark in order to offer concealment in those lightless places where it hibernates).