Break out the bunting.

There are reed buntings nesting in the garden of one of the houses at the top end of the village, it's the second year they've been there.  Nearby on Wednesday I saw a small flock of males and females on the common darting in and out of the sieves (Juncus spp) and perching on the tops of the very short newly emerged bracken.  And today there are reports of a large number of lapwing near Sillas.  It's been an odd spring, the bracken is only just beginning to show and now on the first of June the hawthorn (or May) is only now in full flower but all the apple blossom has gone over and the elders are no where near so the elderflower fizz will have to wait.  The scorching heat of last week has passed and we've had a couple of days of rain for which the garden and farmers are truly grateful, everything has begun to grow again.  the rain has meant that the owls have been taking it in turns to occupy the wires, they've been nicknamed Fat Wol and Thin Wol - for pretty obvious reasons, Thin Wol has a paler more creamy front with very definite speckles whilst Fat Wol is darker all over and usually likes to sit a bit further out so you see her feet more clearly. One evening this week there was obviously confusion over the timetable as both were present for about 15 minutes which gave us a lovely opportunity to compare and contrast.

Last weekend's sporting adventures met with mixed results, the cricket got the cheers but the rugby the tears. French tennis is providing an excellent distraction, has anyone decided what colour Rafa's shirt is yet?  We're going with sun-burnt lobster.

One CJS Weekly is just about to go to print, 16 pages this week including more updates on the buzzard controversy along with 54 new paid posts of which 41 came direct to CJS and 15 adverts for volunteers. thanks to everyone who took the time to answer our 1,2,3 questions.  As a result we're dropping the rtf format from this week, but as yet there are no plans to bring in any of the other suggested types, you all seem really happy with the pdfs - and so are we, so we'll leave it alone.  If you disagree or have any suggestions please contact us, we welcome all feedback at any time.

Back to the bunting.
You might have noticed that there's a rather large Royal Event happening over the weekend which is giving us a double bank holiday next week.  Goathland is joining in with the national celebrations with  an evening BBQ and beacon lighting as well as a street party at the village hall (inside should the heavens open). CJS offices will be open but for shorter hours and with fewer staff.  We're taking the opportunity of the peace and quiet to do some work on the website, if it all goes according to plan there will be a slightly different look next week, a few renovated pages and maybe even a few new ones. There won't be any news and only a few job updates on Monday and Tuesday, no doubt there will be a small heap on Wednesday.