Another busy week

The website stayed put this week which helped quite a lot, however the machinery in the office decided to have a holiday! And the server is making strange noises, just a faulty fan apparently so nothing to worry about...
Weather is much warmer today and most of the snow and ice has now melted but there's still some in the hedge bottoms and folds on the moor. One piece of good news is that our siskins seem to have returned, they've been absent all winter with only the odd one or two irregular visitors but this week they've been back in, if not the same numbers as before then much higher than of recent.
The Weekly edition is now printing, 10 sides this week with 81 new paid posts of which 69 came direct AND this week's edition contains the CJS Focus on Volunteering, all 20 pages of it! Happy reading.

End of a very long week - almost

It's been a very trying week, the website disappeared and then reappeared, then emails were being held for hours but at last (say it very quietly) we think it's all fixed and we're back to full capacity. A bit of a backlog but we're getting there. CJS Weekly, the first of February already would you believe, is now rolling off the presses and is being posted online whilst outside the window someone is bursting pillows and throwing the feathers all around -no, not really, it's snowing again but it looks just like we're in the middle of a particularly destructive pillow fight. The fourth CJS Weekly edition of the year is 10 pages containing 83 new paid posts of which 68 came direct to CJS. Not many ads for volunteers this week as next week the Focus on Volunteering will be included with your copy, this one looks rather large.

Come rain or shine

or even snow we'll get your copy of CJS Weekly to you.

This week every one got involved even HB's kids who leant their sledge and helped to pull the post from the office up to the Post Office for collection - yes, this is actually one of the main roads in the village.

Snow and a Weekly.

One word. SNOW.

Need we say more?

At least it's brought lots of birds into the garden including a couple of redwings. But it's causing problems for the office staff, being in a small village on the moors the office is pretty much inaccessible to vehicles, a large 4x4 got well and truly stuck on the lane this morning and created lots of very deep ruts and skid patches whilst getting out again. For the duration the office is staffed by those of us who can walk in although other team members are doing vital work from home so as long as the power and phone lines hold we'll be fine.
We have been busy taking photos and when we have five minutes we'll upload a few.

Despite this the office opened as usual and the first copy of CJS Weekly has been sent to print. The digital version is already online, the postal one will be with you - well maybe Monday but the white stuff will have a lot say about that. The week it's 11 pages with 72 new paid posts of which 53 came direct to CJS.

Happy New Year

Office is open once again and we're making our way through the mountains of emails and stacks of post having waded in through the snowdrifts. Some staff are still at home and working remotely where possible, only those within walking distance are getting to the office so we may be a little slower than usual in answering the phone / dealing with email etc. Please bear with us, we will get to you all eventually.

Excursions and Weekly.

What a strange week, bank holiday Monday was unsurprisingly very quiet but also lovely weather. then it went wet and miserable but today the sun's back. The cuckoos (yes, we have odd one or seven, red list or not) were yelling their heads off this morning, the swifts have been screaming (we have a fair size squadron of those too, lucky us) and it was too hot at lunch time to eat outside. the forecast for the weekend is quite good too so fingers crossed for a good few days. Although not too hot in Edinburgh please, ST our Scottish stringer is watching family, with typical British pale skin, run the marathon, but not too dreech either as more family is off on DoE expeditions - so we wish them all well and hope whatever the weather it suits their various activities. At the other end of the country in the English capital AW is treating some of her family to a weekend of culture with trips to Tate Modern, Kew and seats to watch A Little Night Music. Some of us are stuck in the office producing your Weekly edition which is now falling off the printer. it's a smallish one this week with just eight pages but 55 new paid posts of which 21 came direct to CJS; there are a few re-ads too.

Bank Holiday sunshine

Someone forgot to tell the weather gods that it's a Bank Holiday!

Brilliant sunshine all weekend if a little breezy at times. But we're back at the keyboards now making a start on next Monday's edition of CJS Weekly and keeping the jobs boards ticking over.

Foggy weather

It's been misty on and off for days, yesterday evening the fog (yes, proper fog the seriously thick, visibility down to feet type of stuff) rolled in. This morning you could only just see across the road and it's not lifted all day. It's brought with it dank and dismal conditions, so much so we've actually relit the wood burner for the first time since mid-March.

Let nothing come between you and your CJS

Well, eventful journeys home for all staff travelling by car even though they were sent home early, leaving at around 3pm but all made it safely home. In the evening the snow changed to light drizzle followed by clearing skies and a slight freeze overnight but no more white stuff. The ruler in the middle of the lawn measured seven and half inches of snow (19cm), so not too bad then. Tractor ploughs and gritters got the roads cleared and opened again by this morning although the vehicular debris was spectacular including a large 4x4 which slid sideways off the road and was stopped by a tree from plunging down the ravine into the river above Beck Hole.
The office remained open and thankfully the heavy snow melted from the vital wires and (so far) no loss of power or phones. So CJS Weekly is now dropping off the printers, this week there are 60 new paid posts, 39 of them direct to CJS, it's 10 pages long plus a further three with training courses and professional events.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

But inside by the fire (or should that be PC) is so delightful and since we've no place to go (now that we've sent all the staff home).
Let it snow, let it snow.

And since it shows no sign of stopping (since about 10am this morning)
But no corn for popping, just lots of work to do and we've got our fingers crossed that the lights don't get turned way down low, although the 'leccy cable is sagging alarmingly.
So let it snow, let it snow but let the lights stay on and we'll get your CJS to you!

Candlemas and snows

If Candlemas day be fair and bright winter will have another flight,
If Candlemas day be dull and drear winter has gone for another year.

But what about if it snows all day??

It started at lunch time yesterday and gradually got heavier with hail overnight, a few breaks in the virtually constant snow during today but the forecasters are predicting 20 inches (yes, nearly two feet) more of snow overnight. So like many offices we're a little short staffed today so grant us a little latitude if we're not quite as fast usual. However, our big worry is that the lights keep flickering so we're just hoping the power stays online.

Hope you're all warm and dry and have made fantastic snowmen to populate the winter wonderland.

St Swithin's day.

Sunday was St Swithin's day, which folklore has it that if it rains on St Swithin's day it will rain for the next forty. Well it didn't start raining until lunch time so does that mean 20 days of rain and 20 days dry or perhaps 40 days of drizzle. Watch the weather forecast to find out!

It rained and then it rained some more.

Well it is the first day of Wimbledon and centre court doesn't have a roof so what do you expect? But we're several hundred miles north of London - apparently this doesn't matter to the weather gods we're getting rain and lots of it by the bucket-load every minute. The ground is saturated, the plants are battered and bowed, the sheep are soggy and be-draggled, roads closed, rivers bursting their banks, puddles turning into ponds and ponds expanding to become lakes before over flowing. The village pond which for years has been a dry sheltered area is now full and threatening to flood the main street. Fortunately the two rivers which bound Goathland on two sides, Eller Beck to the east and West Beck to the west are both in ravines and around a hundred feet below the main village including the CJS Office so the only risk of flooding comes from the sodden fields. Unfortunately The Moorlands was built on one of the village duck ponds (drained before building obviously!), the building is several feet above ground level but the garden is a foot below the surrounding proprieties and the road and is therefore reliably wet or right now soaked and requires wellies to get around, I think it will be waders by going home time.
Heaven for Labradors who insist on going out at least every half hour to check if the water level is deep enough for swimming - not yet - and then bringing as much water as their coats will hold back indoors to shake with great abandon all over everything; so far none of our bits of electrical stuff has gone fizz bang but I'm sure it's only a matter of time……

Sunshine!

What is this bright light in the sky? And it's warm too. So warm that we've been having coffee sitting outside. Make the most of it it's a Bank Holiday coming and you know that means…. Rain!

Fog and sailing ships

We woke up to thick, thick fog which didn't shift all morning so at 11am we lit the wood stove to chase away the dampness. Then of course the sun broke though and began to burn off the murk and now (4pm) it's glorious spring sunshine and we're all basking in the sunshine (and heat from the stove!).

Our nearest town is Whitby which was considered the home port of Captain James Cook. The town has always had lots of links with Cook and a statue of him stand on the cliff overlooking the harbour gazing, I like to think wistfully, out to sea. In recent years you've been able to take a tour of the bay on a scale replica of his famous ship HM Bark Endeavour but perhaps for not much longer because it's up for sale on ebay of all places. So if you fancy your own sailing bark have a look at the listing, click here.

Winter returns.

Like much of the country Goathland is shivering. The wood stove is flaring away keeping us warm but the cold wind takes your breath away as soon as you step outside the door. Yet more fish have arrived in the tank over the weekend, another six – I think it's now full!

Lots of jobs added to the online list today including a new departure for us, one has it's full job description and person specification available to view online – just click the green Job Description button.

We've added a few new links to the link section as well.

The end of another week.

The first daffodil opened today and was nodding in the weak sunshine until it clouded over.

Monday's edition of CJS Weekly is now printing, it contains adverts for 99 new vacancies, 53 of which were sent direct to CJS. We're also sending the email copies using the new software again and this week we've got our fingers crossed that the attachments don't disappear into the ether like last week. There are rumours of snow next week, BBC weather gives us light snow showers on Monday and Tuesday but Metcheck says rain showers so we shall see. Any important news will appear here.

The lull before the storm?

After a busy few days (perhaps that should be weeks) it's finally beginning to slow down and we've had time to think. We're using the lull to catch up on a few things and to start planning a few new features.

Yesterday we published the first Special Edition of 2007, it features Seasonal and Volunteer work and is packed full of useful information and loads of adverts. So have a read.

The outlook on the owl box is not looking good, the proposed tree is too straight which means the box would be vertical and the branches are all at nearly 90º to the trunk so on these limbs it would be horizontal not at all want a homeless Tawny want. Our next plan of campaign is to try work out a way to fix the box at an angle, with perhaps a wedge between the back of the box and the trunk.

The weather has been balmy, once again you could almost believe it's spring – but last time we said that it snowed for a week. On one of the intake fields a large flock of lapwing has been seen wheeling in the wind and crying out across the moor fringes, but so far no curlew, once they arrive we know the seasons really have turned the corner.

We're off to eat pancakes now - don't forget the lemon juice!

More snow, and then some more snow.

So far the count is one abandoned car, one bumped car (slid into by a transit van whilst stationary), a few sore muscles from too much sledging and lots of damp clothes from snowballs – hopefully that's it. The woodstove is going full tilt keeping us all warm and preventing brains from congealing. In the office we're having of those weeks: yesterday the second half of the work on the server was to take place but it was discovered that the first half hadn't gone according to plan so that was abandoned. Plan B has been pressed into action and a whole new set of hard drives are being configured and at some point will be switched for the old ones which will mean another day offline, we don’t know when yet but will let you know well in advance. Our webhost server (not the office one, we keep them separate) blocked the submissions from the online forms delivering two days worth this morning, including a deluge from a webbot – which may have been the problem. So backup procedures have now been added to the site and a few changes are planned.
However the CJS team struggle on and are determined that your copies of CJS will arrive in full and on time.

We're living in a Christmas Card!

4-5 inches of snow fell over night followed by more flurries through the morning. However, CJS carries on as normal – ish.

The postie got through and collected CJS Monthly so that should be with you tomorrow or the day after.

As you'd expect the bird feeders are covered in birds but every time I go to take a photo they all go and hide in the trees! I'm glad we're not doing the Birdcount today, although they are more visible against the snow there are so many more than usual.

It must be spring.

Goathland is bathed in warm sunshine, the dawn chorus is getting in full swing and the tawny owls are hooting at full volume all night. The green shoots of many bulbs are poking above the soil and the first snowdrops are nodding gently in the breeze but don't be lulled into a false sense of security, next week's weather forecast predicts turning colder again.

CJS Weekly out as usual, this week fifteen pages containing 118 new paid posts of which 62 came to CJS direct from the employer.

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.