The Friday update.

The week's gone smoothly – but then that's what you'd expect from us. Loads of new adverts online this week and don't forget to have a look at the volunteers page which is updated weekly. Monday 2 April edition of CJS Weekly is 14 sides long with 134 vacancies of which 52 were sent direct to CJS.

Quick reminder: If you're planning to send us an advert for next week's Weekly or for the Monthly don't forget next weekend is Easter therefore we have revised deadlines. Copy for CJS Weekly and booking for CJS Monthly is 5pm Thursday 5 April. Copy for April's Monthly must be received BEFORE 12 noon Tuesday 10 April so why not send it before the bank holiday just to be sure.

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.

CJS Weekly & new job codes.

Everything's gone almost smoothly and the printers are now running. This week's edition is a huge 17 sides long with 126 new vacancies of which 51 came to CJS direct from the employer. This week we've introduced a new method of referencing the jobs, it lets readers know which vacancies are also on our website where there are often many more details than we are able to fit into the Standard (free) linage adverts; have a look at page 9 for details.

What's Niall up to now?

Is a question a few of you have asked. So, here's the answer -

Niall may have retired from CJS but like so many other retired people he's busier than ever and still standing up for what he believes in. He's a member of many local groups and is involved in campaigning for Whitby and district, in fact this week he's in the Whitby Gazette in his capacity as a 'concerned resident' and member if the Whitby & District Tourism Association. Read the article here.

If you'd like to keep up with his activities then read his Wildlife Diary and News Blog at on his Groves Dyke website.

The vulture's back.

Earlier this year an African white-backed vulture was spotted in the area but was subsequently thought to have been killed in a road accident. But – it's been seen again and this time was photographed in Grosmont (by a reader of the Gazette, photo from their website), the next village down the valley from Goathland. It must be shivering today it's been snowing on and off all day.

To read the full report in our local paper The Whitby Gazette please 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.

New fish – New road

We've got eight new fish in the fish tank today, seven little blue tetras and one catfish, allegedly an Agassizii but it's not spotty so we don't think so. And half a new road, we're located on a private unmetalled road which has taken rather a lot of hammer over the winter and has quite a lot of pot holes. Today a gang of men with large, noisy heavy machinery have been digging it up, adding to it and then flattening it again. The whole office is now shaking as the road roller trundles up and down outside and we're at the back of the building! So apologies to anyone who calls and hears the cacophony in the background.

The end of another week.

It's been a mixed week, it started well with fantastic views of the lunar eclipse on Saturday (perhaps that was the end of last week?) with nice sunshine for most of the week. But Tuesday was fraught with the non-arrival of envelopes for the Monthly, Wednesday was worrying as for the second time we attempted the server upgrade but it went well, Thursday was the usual and Friday has been surprisingly relaxed – for a Friday. We think we've begun the wind down to the end of the financial year and Easter with a gradual decrease in adverts but not that much as Monday's edition of CJS Weekly still contains 114 new vacancies, 51 direct to CJS, over 12 pages.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

CJS Monthly made it -

the reserve envelopes finally turned up this afternoon, very battered but useable – just. But that was too late for the poor envelope stuffers who had to fold 376 copies - could have been worse, it might have been 673 copies!!

CJS Monthly has lots of new features this month, there are two adverts in full colour online, next month you'll be able to advertise in the paper copy in colour too. It's now online in a downloadable PDF format as well as the usual webpages and the new software means we're able to email reminders with full links direct to readers (sorry only available to people transferring from paper copies). Click here to read the March edition, it's six pages long plus four pages of Events Diary (only available online).

What no envelopes??

Everything arrived on time for the March Monthly edition, it all fell neatly into place and the printers chuntered away thundering out several thousand sheets. BUT and this is a big but it's now 4.30pm and we've not had this weeks delivery of paper and envelopes, we're already one delivery adrift so we've used our surplus envelopes and at the moment we're 400 – 500 envelopes short. We realised this may be problem yesterday and ordered more envelopes from another supplier who promised delivery today – but they're not here yet either (but the free gift is!). To get the Monthly out for Royal Mail they all have to ready to go by 7am tomorrow morning at the latest. I have a horrible feeling we may end up folding by hand 500 copies of CJS Monthly – RSI here we come.

Friday rolls around again.

It's a gloriously sunny day and here we are making sure you get your copy of CJS but it's almost the weekend.

CJS Weekly is currently being printed, this week it's 13 sides with 95 new vacancies, 55 sent direct to CJS. This week we're trying some new software for sending the electronic versions, it's been a little trying especially as it's managed to re-file all the carefully built templates of the messages etc. Hopefully you've received your copy by now, if not please contact us and we'll try to find out why not. We'd appreciate your feedback on what you think of the new system.

St David's Day

It may be St David's Day but there are no signs of any daffodils around the CJS office, quite a lot of foliage but no flower – yet. It's been a quiet week, and we've just been plodding on as usual; saving ourselves for the mad rush that is the CJS Monthly next week. After a couple of mild days the temperature dropped today and the winds have got quite fierce which has brought the birds back in to the garden, the feeders are once again covered in finches including the bramblings and siskins. We're concerned about one rather drab little greenfinch, we think he must be from one of the last broods of last year, he's all fluffed up and has taken up residence in the Perspex window bird table (you know the sort - stuck to the window with suckers).