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.