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poliphiloYesterday I went and purchased a great number of big wooden stakes- prime chestnut, sharpened at the end- enough to create a very pleasant breakfasting environment for Vlad Tepes. They're in bundles and it took Matthew three trips to transport them from the wood yard on his flat bed truck. I made the first trip with him- because I had to hand over money- a lot of money- to the wood man- sharing my seat with his three, excitable, undisciplined dogs. It was a new experience. Such things are always worth having.
The stakes are the raw materials for the new garden fence which will keep the rabbits at bay and should, all things being equal, last for a quarter of a century. Always in the country one finds oneself thinking long term. We have Matt booked for three days next week to put it up.
There was a blinded rabbit sitting on the back lawn when Matt and I were setting out. "I thought myxomatosis was over," I said. "No," he said, "Once you introduce it into a population it's there for keeps." Like I said, long term. Incidentally, that was a wicked thing we did- by "we" meaning humankind as a species. Shoot rabbits, certainly, but brew up a plague in the lab to kill them slowly and en masse, that crossed some sort of a line.
The stakes are the raw materials for the new garden fence which will keep the rabbits at bay and should, all things being equal, last for a quarter of a century. Always in the country one finds oneself thinking long term. We have Matt booked for three days next week to put it up.
There was a blinded rabbit sitting on the back lawn when Matt and I were setting out. "I thought myxomatosis was over," I said. "No," he said, "Once you introduce it into a population it's there for keeps." Like I said, long term. Incidentally, that was a wicked thing we did- by "we" meaning humankind as a species. Shoot rabbits, certainly, but brew up a plague in the lab to kill them slowly and en masse, that crossed some sort of a line.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-09 11:44 am (UTC)by Philip Larkin
Caught in the center of a soundless field
While hot inexplicable hours go by
What trap is this? Where were its teeth concealed?
You seem to ask.
I make a sharp reply,
Then clean my stick. I'm glad I can't explain
Just in what jaws you were to suppurate:
You may have thought things would come right again
If you could only keep quite still and wait.
The local lad had it bang on!
no subject
Date: 2017-05-10 09:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-05-10 12:53 am (UTC)I didn't know until you mentioned it that myxomatosis was introduced deliberately into wild populations of rabbits. I'm just amazed it didn't backlash horribly across species, like so many other things humans believe themselves immune to. I suppose it still could.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-10 09:07 am (UTC)