More jobs and even more birds.

A flurry of jobs to start the week, see Daily Online for the latest.

We did the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch yesterday, gave ourselves headaches trying to count the chaffinches. But anyway here's what we saw – Blackbird 4; Blue Tit 2; Brambling 1; Carrion crow 3; Collard Dove 2; Dunnock 1; Goldfinch 4; Great tit 2; Greenfinch 11; House sparrow 3; Jackdaw 2; Robin 1; Song thrush 1; Woodpigeon 1; Wren 1. Just before we started our hour's counting a family of 7 long-tailed tits visited but they didn't return and during the hour we heard but did not see a Tawny owl. But it got us to thinking, we've not seen any siskins this year, last year we had flocks of them but not a one this year – although the red nut feeder fell apart to be replaced by a green one so perhaps that's why.

Advance warning, on Wednesday (31/1/07) we've having some essential work done to our server so we'll be offline, probably all day. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

More jobs and even more birds.

A flurry of jobs to start the week, see Daily Online for the latest.

We did the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch yesterday, gave ourselves headaches trying to count the chaffinches. But anyway here's what we saw – Blackbird 4; Blue Tit 2; Brambling 1; Carrion crow 3; Collard Dove 2; Dunnock 1; Goldfinch 4; Great tit 2; Greenfinch 11; House sparrow 3; Jackdaw 2; Robin 1; Song thrush 1; Woodpigeon 1; Wren 1. Just before we started our hour's counting a family of 7 long-tailed tits visited but they didn't return and during the hour we heard but did not see a Tawny owl. But it got us to thinking, we've not seen any siskins this year, last year we had flocks of them but not a one this year – although the red nut feeder fell apart to be replaced by a green one so perhaps that's why.

Advance warning, on Wednesday (31/1/07) we've having some essential work done to our server so we'll be offline, probably all day. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

What a week

Weather warming up a bit but there are still some extensive sheets of ice to catch out the unwary walker - or dog as the younger labrador found out to her cost this morning.
The cold weather has drawn a few bramblings into the garden over the last couple of days. Hope they stay then we can add them to the list for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch over the weekend. The count could prove somewhat problematic we've tried counting the chaffinches and greenfinches but we can never agree on the number as there are so many and they keep moving - we got an average of 33 and a half chaffinches and 24 and a third greenfinches! Not sure how that will affect the stats. We'll update you next week as to how we got on - or not as the case maybe.
Today's Friday and CJS Weekly has gone to press as normal this week it's 16 pages with 127 jobs, 59 of those direct to CJS.

More snow...

More snow overnight but today we have gritters.

We have spring & autumn side by side in the garden with lovely hazel catkins dusted with snow.

How's this for efficiency? Today we received a letter from Sweden for an American company setting up a subscription for an English college paying with a cheque drawn on an international bank.

Wind, rain, hail, sleet and now snow.

We've had it all over the last few days and now it's snowing heavens hard. Overnight less a centimetre fell but the road crews were conspicuous by their absence. No grit, no ploughs overnight or this morning making even the main road treacherous. Mid morning walked up to the post office with the banking and a couple of bills to pay and the roads were still not cleared except by weight of traffic.

This is the view from the office door at about 11 am this morning - isn't it pretty! That 'fog' you can see is the next blizzard blowing in. There's not so much green now...


The birds are having a feast on the feeders outside the office, when the bossy goldfinches let anyone else near.

What a week.

I can't believe it's Friday already, the week's flown by in a flurry of bits of trees, rain and anything else that would take off.
In comparison with much of the rest of the country we've been incredibly lucky, neither the CJS office or any of the homes of the staff have been damaged. Mind you, we've been so busy in the office we've hardly noticed.
Today it's been another dozen or so jobs online plus the second weekly of 2007 – which is once again stuffed, 117 new posts of which 71 were sent direct to CJS. However, we have snow forecast for next week so watch this space for developments (or not as the electricity supply dictates).

A new week dawns.

But we're still trying to catch up on the back log! And people keep sending us more adverts, 10+ online so far and more booked for later in the week. Although we did get the Weekly printed and envelopes stuffed in time for collection – you should be reading it by now.
Outside we're battening down the hatches in preparation for the forecast storm. The bird feeders are still covered in birds and after a few days away the marsh tit is back but the long tails have become only occasional visitors and neither of the nuthatches (we have two regulars, one with more 'eyeliner' and a smaller white chin the other with tidier 'eyeliner' and white chin & cheeks) has been seen for about a week. The garden was just drying out and last nights rain has drenched it again, however the new hedges (we've planted another one, this time of hawthorn and field maple) both seem to be standing up well and the hazel is budding up.

First CJS Weekly of 2007

..is as we expected huge! With a bit of juggling and much editing we've shrunk it to just 24 pages but there are still 245 vacancies, 176 of those were sent direct to CJS (the rest are in the digest of other publications). The printers are now running and we hope to be able to stuff all the envelopes tonight ready for collection over the weekend. It's going to be a late night! However, thanks to so many of you transferring to electronic copies it's going to be easier than in previous years, the worst on record took over 26 continuous hours just to print (yes, you are reading that right, twenty six hours, that's more than a day).

Deluges of jobs and water.

Well it’s been a bit of a deluge both inside (jobs wise) and out (rain wise).
The office is struggling under the weight of job adverts, 26 online so far plus three on the Events Diary also the January edition of CJS Monthly. So far the Weekly edition is running at 16 pages and still a small mountain to type, not to mention two & half pages of display adverts (and counting).
Outside we're doing better than lots of other areas with only some flooding, BBC reports that the Whitby to Pickering road is closed due to flooding, and very windy. The birds are having to perform some very impressive acrobatic flying to land on the feeders! The garden outside the office is always rather soggy (having been built where one of the village ponds used to be) but is now a quagmire, I hope the newly planted hazel and cobnut hedge isn't suffering too much.
Oh well, back to the typing. Now, how do you spell countryside? – ah like that…

CJS Monthly - January now online

A good start to the year, everything arrived on time for the Monthly, all fell into place with no awkward gaps and the printers are now clattering away churning out the paper copies to be received on Thursday. But you've gone for electronic copies so you can see yours right now!

More jobs in CJS Monthly: January's edition is now online in full, 8 pages this month.
Page One: Ranger, Ashfield District Council
Page Two: Seasonal Assistant Rangers (2), Warwickshire County Council; Recreation Ranger (Tay Forest District) & Seasonal Recreation Rangers - 3 Short Term Temporary Posts (East Anglia Forest District), Forestry Commission
Page Three: Lemur Project: HLF Heritage Training Bursary Placements. Co-ordinated by Herefordshire Nature Trust.
Page Four: Head of People and Wildlife & Head of Visitor Centres, Trading & Visitor Engagement, Kent Wildlife Trust; Seasonal Shop Manager and Assistant Campsite Wardens, Langdale Campsite, Great Langdale, near Ambleside, The National Trust; Ranger, Nene Park Trust.
Page Five: Senior Nature Reserves Manager, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust; Seasonal Assistant Ranger (3 posts), Coventry City Council; Wildlife Training Co-ordinator, Sussex Wildlife Trust
Page Six: Seasonal Thistle Camp Leader, The National Trust for Scotland; Purbeck Heritage Officer, Purbeck District Council; Planning Officer, South Downs Society; Sustainable Tourism Officer, North York Moors National Park Authority
Page Seven: Seasonal Assistant Campsite Wardens - Lake District, The National Trust; Royal Highland Education Trust - Developer, The Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland; Field Assistants / Ecologists, Carter Ecological; CJS Special Edition Supplements: Seasonal & Volunteering Work.
Page Eight:Events Diary for January / February LAST PAGE

Happy New Year - CJS is open!

Well, that's it for another year the festivities are over and it's back to 'normal' – whatever that maybe!
The CJS office is once again open but it's been a funny start to the year. It all went wrong before Christmas when our broadband account was 'ceased' without any warning. A large Telecom company (working in Britain – you work it out!) cancelled our account because we changed the contact name for the phone line which means that there was a technical break in our telephone line and you have to have 24 hour continuous service, it's in the very small print and no-one told us that simply changing the name would mean a half second break the service. Anyway countless phone calls and even more menus later a new order was placed, a new account opened and a new connection made just in time for the office to open. However being without contact to the outside world meant that the emails mushroomed over the break and we've dealt with over 400 genuine emails, not including the spam, since we re-connected. Then when we came into the office to start on the backlog two key members of staff had to have time off, one to attend a family funeral 200 miles away and one with a stinker of a cold. But we're back up to full strength now and just about caught up with ourselves.