Another Sunrise

The rains of yesterday subsided and it cleared up overnight. This morning we were greeted by a thick blanket of mist. I took this photo at 8am this morning. Since then the mist has now cleared and we have a lovely sunny day.

Cows

Not exactly the most likely things to see flying, but following yesterdays reference to the moon, who knows! Besides which there is actually a case of a cow flying, vertically, at least (although I think I am using some poetic licence by using the term "flying"...falling would be more appropriate!). This happened some years back when one fell out the back of a Russian cargo aircraft flying accross the Pacific...apparently the cargo door somehow came unlocked and during a period of air turbulence a prize bull literally fell out the aircraft! Allegedly the said bull hit and sunk a ship, although I am not sure how much truth there is to that....it does seem rather unlikely....mind you a bull falling from 30,000 ft is pretty unlikely too! Anyway here are some with their feet definitely on the ground which have just moved in to the field at the back of our house. You can also see that the fine weather has finally broken....a very damp and dismal day today.

The Moon

With partly clear skies last night and a full moon, it was time to experiment with camera and tripod again. Here are a couple of photo's I managed before the moon became obscured.

Bathtime

Activity at the bird bath this morning. Here we have a bunch of Sparrows stopping off for a wash and brush-up this morning. Then it was a case of basking in the morning sunshine to dry off.

Nuthatch

Like the Great Spotted Woodpecker, the Nuthatch was another regular Spring visitor to our peanut feeders. Recent appearances have been rare, but I managed this photo the other day, and actually captured the subject the right way up. I say that since normally they are upside down when seen on the feeder!

BAe Bribery Claims

It seems that the SFO are going to keep their teeth well and truly sunk into BAe Systems. Just when it had all calmed down after the much publicised Al Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia, now BAe are accused of bribery to secure deals in South Africa, Tanzania, Czech Republic and Romania.

When is someone going to wake up to the fact that if you deal with the authorities in such countries, somewhere along the line, the wheels will need to be oiled. Just because we have a cleancut approach (supposedly) to such contracts, why do we expect other countries, particular in Africa, Middle East and Eastern Europe, to do the same? On the contrary, to merely do business in some of these countries requires a middle man, who will not only want his share, but will also need to offer financial encouragement to the decision maker (or the person who has the necessary influence on the decision process) to come a favourable agreement with the company who is bidding for the business. We are naive if we really believe that contracts can be won in these places by simply offering the most competive deal. In fact having dealt in 2 of the aforementioned countries I can totally support BAe's position.

Now the question I suppose is, that being the case, should BAe simply not bother? Well I hate to say it but if they don't the contracts will be awarded to those organisations who make the necessary effort to secure the deals. So, the end result would inevitably be that BAe (and hence the UK) loose out on multi million pound contracts, which in turn results in laying off staff, and so it goes on...and the questions then get asked, why did BAe loose out to say Lockheed Martin, or Boeing, etc etc? I think the powers that be and the SFO need a serious dose of reality....after all this is how business is done in these countries!