77% direct

The second of the pre-Christmas warnings is included in Monday's edition of CJS Weekly – my, how time flies. The Weekly is now printing, this week it's eleven sides again this but time with 110 new paid posts of which 85 were sent direct to CJS, that's a whopping 77% a greater percentage than at any time through the year so we must be doing something right!!

New this week, you can now view back issues of CJS Weekly, free of charge, online. We're aiming to keep about a month's worth available at any one time, however because CJS is 'subscription only' the most recent freely available edition is three weeks old. So you might find a few jobs still in date but most will have closed. Also this week we've been reviewing the publications we take to create the jobs digest section, as a result we've dropped a few and added a couple of new titles. If you think we've dropped some or not considered one that should be included please let us know and we'll look again. As ever, your feedback is always welcome. We're off to think about Christmas presents…..

CJS Weekly, electricity & snow - perhaps

Hi folks -The replacement of the electric string apparently went well and we came back on stream without any problems (well, no known problems yet…!).

The temperature is plummeting but the skies are high and clear although snow is forecast overnight so we may some pretty pictures for you by Monday. The birds are filling the garden and emptying the feeders. We've just received a new mesh tray to try meal worms for the robin, we'll let you know how if gets on as last year's experiments with meal worms and bowls were a complete disaster the only thing that ate them was the dog!

Anyway the Weekly is still printing so we'll be working long into the night to ensure it's ready for the postie tomorrow morning. It's eleven pages, with 67 new paid posts of which 31 came direct to CJS.

birds and no 'leccy

The siskins returned today, two males and one female so far. All the poor birds are looking very bedraggled and fed up with this seemingly never ending rain. Our lovely new path is now covered in a sea of mud created by the rebuilding of the drystone wall. A brush and some buckets of water will fix that – once it stops raining!!

An advance warning – tomorrow (Thursday 22 November) our electricity supplier is carrying out their pre-winter line checks and maintenance which means we will be without electricity for most of the day. Back to the battery powered laptop and an old fashioned phone with a wire! We'll soldier on and hopefully you'll never notice.

CJS Special Edition

Latest edition published today. This one features Trees and Hedges and as in previous years is in association with The Tree Council for National Tree Week.

To read this edition click here.

A bumper edition.

This week's edition contains the 2007 Special Edition supplement featuring Trees and Hedges, as before it's in association with the Tree Council. This year we've focused on Wood Fuel and Urban Trees with articles from The Woodland Trust, CVNI and Trees for Cities. There are loads of adverts and a whole heap of training courses. To see the special click here.

You'll also find the first monthly Training Calendar in this week's edition. This includes, in chronological order, brief details of courses and events being held during the next calendar month and an update on new online listings for longer courses and providers. The online training section has also had a bit of a revamp. Courses are now detailed according to type, so if you're looking to brush up your identification skills you no longer need to wade through courses on how to make biodiesel. Log onto: http://www.countryside-jobs.com/index/training.htm to find out more.

This week's edition is 11 pages of jobs, 2 of training plus a further 11 of Special Edition – wow! There are 83 new paid posts of which 41 were sent direct to CJS.

It's done.

The builders have finished, tidied up and gone away. The new path looks lovely and the brain is in overdrive planning the new borders, grass paths, plants, shrubs etc. But that will all have to wait, rebuilt wall next.

And CJS Weekly is also done for the week and the printers are rolling away. With the reduced scope (fewer publicity / fundraiser etc) it's only nine pages this week but over 60% of the jobs came direct to CJS, 41 of 67.

No storm damage to report – thank goodness. Although CJS is based on the east coast we're about nine miles inland safely protected behind very high cliffs, so high the Vikings called the area cliffland when they sailed past. Over the following years cliffland has been corrupted into Cleveland the county just above North Yorkshire on the map. The woodstove is fizzing away keeping everyone lovely and warm and the hoards of birds in the garden are keeping us entertained. We do seem to have fewer blue tits than usual but great tits seem to be at about the same number as last year (see this week's feature article). The nuthatch has also returned feasting on peanuts and sunflower hearts.

CJS Monthly (again)

Published on Tuesday but for some reason not visible online! Isn’t technology wonderful? So here's Tuesday's news again (sorry if have actually got it twice..!)

CJS Monthly – November edition After an agonizing wait for one advert it's finally gone to press and is now online for you to read, paper edition should be with readers on Thursday. We're still asking you for your readership numbers please fax back your address page with the details or complete the form online.

Great excitement – the builders came back today, this time to start on the new path! The drystone wall is in heaps across the garden - don't worry we have a waller on hand to put it back together when the new path is finished.

Lots of news.

Sorry for the brief hiatus, the blogger in chief has had some time off! So lots of news for you.

First, last week's edition of CJS Weekly was 10 pages with 67 new vacancies of which 29 were sent direct to CJS. As Royal Mail have now ceased Sunday collections this was the first time CJS Weekly was been collected on a Saturday. It would appear that the system was not quite ready for the sudden influx of extra mail on Saturdays with many more than usual subscribers this week reporting non-delivery. Let's hope the wrinkles have now been ironed out and that copies land on doormats on Monday as usual. This week's edition is now streaming off the printers, it's 12 sides of 85 new paid posts of which 34 came to CJS direct from the employer.

You'll find the results of the Subscribers Survey and our responses. A couple of changes are that we're looking carefully at the types of posts we advertise, excluding some we previously included and possibly adding a few ones. We're also reviewing the look and format of the voluntary vacancies. Many thanks to everyone who replied and sent us their thoughts; and congratulations to subscriber 37634 - the lucky recipient of a set of Bird ID Insights cards.

Now, just in case you hadn't noticed Monday is bonfire night (see the article about hedgehogs and bonfires in this week's edition). Being a rural area we're very lucky in not plagued too much by excessive and inappropriate fireworks. But one CJS subscriber has become an unknowing victim. This package was received in today's post:

Once opened we very gingerly handled a soggy envelope and extracted the contents which still smell smoky. There was also a note from Royal Mail which states, " The enclosed correspondence intended for your address was unfortunately damaged and recovered in this condition. I would like to assure you that whilst every effort is made to ensure your mail is secure at all times, you will appreciate that acts of mindless vandalism by unknown member o f the public do sometimes occur and are beyond our control." In other words, some idiot put a firework in the pillar box!!

Last week we had to light the wood stove for the first time this year, but then we've let it go out and now have the windows open again, this must be one of the warmest beginnings to November. We've also cleaned all the bird feeders and refilled them and now the garden is full of very hungry birds, they were just waiting, no sooner had the filled feeders been put on the hooks than the first finches arrived – even before we'd got back inside! This year there seem to be more cole tits than before and several large families of long tailed tits have been checking us out but as yet none of the large flocks of siskins that have been reported elsewhere. Several skeins of geese and one of swans (probably whooper but too far away to confirm categorically) have flown over this last few days. Hebe has discovered that she likes bird food and is digging under the feeders for all the scraps, she's not yet realised that a couple of them are within reach – yet….!

Oh, and for those of you worried about the poor traumatized pup - Hebe managed OK during the rugby, we were very restrained despite wanting to scream – it was a try, it was a try (it wasn't but there you go), so well done to the boys for a sterling effort and roll on 2011 when we'll do all again! In the mean time I think we'll have to go with some desensitization exercises prior to the six nations.