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lobelia321I doubt anyone will understand this except those living within the hazy radius of Ipswich.
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sheldrake, queen of aphid-expert-slash.
(This peach aphid is too beautiful to hide under an lj-cut. I apologise profusely to all arthropodophobes.)
This one's all for
sheldrake, queen of aphid-expert-slash.(This peach aphid is too beautiful to hide under an lj-cut. I apologise profusely to all arthropodophobes.)
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Aphids: the early years
Date: 2003-07-16 03:15 pm (UTC)Tait felt suddenly warm, his skin prickling under the collar of his shirt.
"I ... I don't know quite what to say. It seems absurd, I've studied aphid theory for so many years... but..."
Dr Harrington smiled. "Aptly named, don't you think? A peach, indeed..." His voice was rough, his chin unshaven. On his head, he wore a battered canvas hat, stained with the dust and mud of the Luxembourg potato fields. He crossed to the window and stood there, looking out at the lab car park.
"I wasn't much older than you, the day I saw my first peach aphid," he said. "I remember it well. So this is the thing I have worked all these years to destroy, I thought. This arthropod the colour of a rose ... this delicate jewel of a creature. Nature, Michael. Nature can be cruel. In so many ways..." His voice trailed away.
Michael Tait came over to where the aphid population dynamics expert stood. He hesitated, then laid a hand on the sleeve of the ancient Barbour jacket.
"It's so..." he said softly.
Harrington turned. He looked Tait in the eye. "Beautiful?"
Tait felt himself fixed like a butterfly, on the pin of Harrington's blue gaze.
"Yes."
Harrington gave a curt nod, then turned away. "Yes. It is beautiful. And it must die. Come -- we have work to do."
He strode out of the lab, without looking back to see whether or not Tait would follow.
Re: Aphids: the early years
Date: 2003-07-17 02:41 am (UTC)The Luxembourg potato fields! The Barbour jacket!
And the tragic angst of the ending!
Oh, aphid!
Oh, aphid expert!
Oh, aphid-expert slasher!
Re: Aphids: the early years
Date: 2003-07-17 12:05 pm (UTC)Thank you.
Today I found some pictures of people who work at Michael Tait's company, in Sales. They are quite distressingly unnattractive though.
Re: Aphids: the early years
Date: 2003-07-17 01:24 pm (UTC)*gagging for unattractive-man!slash*
Well, you know, the pretty does get to be a bit of the same old same old.... And the angst and frisson and overcomingness of ugly-men in lust...!!!!! *waves proboscis*
Re: Aphids: the early years
Date: 2003-07-20 04:06 pm (UTC)Re: Aphids: the early years
Date: 2003-07-20 04:28 pm (UTC)Re: Aphids: the early years
Date: 2003-07-20 04:29 pm (UTC)Re: Aphids: the early years
Date: 2003-07-20 04:34 pm (UTC)Re: Aphids: the early years
Date: 2003-07-20 04:34 pm (UTC)Re: Aphids: the early years
Date: 2003-07-21 06:17 am (UTC)Re: Aphids: the early years
Date: 2003-07-21 11:14 am (UTC)Re: Aphids: the early years
Date: 2003-07-21 12:40 pm (UTC)I must get my paws on Farmers (sic) Guide magazine. Or similar. Do you think Ryan Air inflight magazine would do the trick?
Re: Aphids: the early years
Date: 2003-07-21 01:19 pm (UTC)Aphids may be thin on the ground, I fear. Or, you know, thin in the air, or whatever. I wonder if they sell Farmers (sic) Weekly airports? For all those international jetsetting farmers going off to Brussels to complain about things?
But if there turns out to be no access at al to agricultural literaturel, you must simply try to enjoy your holiday as best you can without it.
Re: Aphids: the early years
Date: 2003-07-21 01:44 pm (UTC)I must get my paws on Farmers (sic) Guide magazine. Or similar. Do you think Ryan Air inflight magazine would do the trick?
Re: Aphids: the early years
Date: 2003-07-21 01:47 pm (UTC)