“Mi gollodd nhad a mam eu iechyd i radde. Buodd hynny’n groes fawr i mi gael gyrru mlaen efo addysg ynde. Rhaid i mi fod adre ynde, ’da chi’n gweld… Dipyn o bopeth, jack of all trade ynde. O’n i’n gorfod helpu llawer iawn allan ynde, efo ceffyle a rwbeth felly ynde. Twmo’r popdy mawr i grasu bara, a chorddi fel bydde amser yno ynde, ryw ddwywaith yr wsos ynde.”

Helo Cyfeillion y Gwanwyn,

Diolch yn fawr i'r rhai ohonoch sef wedi rhannu eich lluniau, rwyf wedi atodi'r rhain ar y dde. Rwy’n hapus i glywed bod rhai o'ch planhigion wedi cychwyn blaguro. Yn fy Blog diwethaf gofynnais a ydych yn credu byddai'r Crocws neu'r Cennin Pedr yn blodeuo’n gyntaf. Nawr rwyf isio gymryd golwg agosach ar y ddau blanhigyn i weld sut fedrwn ni gwybod nhw’n wahân. Rwyf wedi atodi llun o Grocws ifanc a Chennin Pedr ar y dde, mae'r rhain wedi eu labelu yn glir. Beth yw'r gwahaniaethau rhwng y ddau blanhigyn?

A fedrwch ddweud os eich Cennin Pedr, Crocws neu'r ddau syn blaguro? Pa mor dal ydyn nhw? Mae'n ddiddorol i gymharu uchder y ddau blanhigyn ac i sylwi faint y maent yn tyfu bob wythnos.

Gwyliwch eich planhigion yn ofalus fel medrwch gofnodi'r dyddiad mae’r planhigion yn blodeuo, a thaldra eich planhigyn ar y diwrnod. Wedyn, fedrwch rannu’r wybodaeth ar y wefan.  Mae adnodd o'r enw 'Cadw Cofnodion Blodau’ ar dudalen we Prosiect Bylbiau'r Gwanwyn i Ysgolion, o dan 'Adnoddau Addysgu': https://amgueddfa.cymru/bylbiau-gwanwyn/

Adnodd arall fysa’n ddiddorol i ddefnyddio nawr gallwch weld eich bylbiau’n tyfu yw ‘Gwnewch lyfryn origami bach eich hun!’. Mae hyn ar y wefan hefyd, ac mae’n edrych ar gylch bywyd bwlb.

Os ydych yn cwblhau unrhyw weithgaredd oddi ar y wefan, neu yn creu un eich hun yn y dosbarth, plîs rhannwch eich gwaith gyda ni. Mae’n ddiddorol i weld y gwaith da chi’n wneud.

Diolch am rannu eich darlleniadau tywydd. Rwyf wedi ateb rhai o'ch sylwadau yn isod.

Eich sylwadau:

Sylwadau am y tywydd:

Ysgol Pentrefoelas: Dim llawer o law a chynnes. Pawb yn ymarfer pel-droed at y twrnament ac felly yn gallu bod allan bob dydd. Llawer o blant wedi cael balaclafas capiau anifeiliaid i gadw eu pennau'n gynnes.

Athro’r Ardd: Gobeithio gwnaethoch yn dda yn y twrnamaint! Rwy’n hoffi meddwl am bawb rhedeg o gwmpas hefo capiau anifeiliaid gwahanol! Am anrhegion da i gael am Nadolig!

Arkholme CE Primary School: We had quite a wet week. It was fairly warm and some bulbs are sprouting from last year.

Broad Haven Primary School: We hoped we would have snow. But we just had a really cold wind -Northerly- and a bit of sleet. The sea was very rough and the waves came over the road.

Darran Park Primary: The temperature has lowered throughout the week. There has been a little amount of rain.

YGG Tonyrefail: It wasn't very wet this week but it was quiet warm.

Stanford in the Vale Primary School: Hello, the mornings of this week have been very cold and icy. We have had a rainy week this week. bye,bye

Auchenlodment Primary School: It has been a very warm week even though it's January!

Broad Haven Primary School: A cloudy week until today it is very sunny but cold

Sylwadau am y prosiect:

Ysgol Bro Ogwr: Yr wythnos yma fe dorrodd y dyfais i gasglu dwr ar ddydd Iau pan ddaeth y glaw. Roedd split ynddo a mae'r athro wedi defnyddio duct tape i rhoi fe yn ol at ei gilydd. Fe all hyn olygu bod ein canlyniadau ni ddim yn hollol gywir.

Athro’r Ardd: Diolch am roi gwybod am y broblem. Da iawn i'ch athro am drwsio’r mesurydd glaw . Gadewch i mi wybod os ydych yn angen mesurydd glaw newydd.

Sylwadau am eich planhigion:

Ysgol Pennant: Maer bylbiau yn dechrau tyfu!

St Clare's Catholic Primary School: Some of our bulbs have started to shoot this week!

Ladygrove Park Primary School: nothing growing yet

Professor Plant: Don’t worry Bulb Buddies, I’m sure you will see something soon!

Garstang St. Thomas' CE Primary School: It was a really rainy week but it was quite warm outside. We have noticed some of our bulbs are growing because we can see pointy green shoots poking through the soil!

Arkholme CE Primary School: The bulbs in the pots are just starting to sprout and look healthy. We have just noticed that last years plants are also growing. As usual the days in January have been wet so we think that helped them to grow.

Henllys CIW Primary: Our biggest plant is a daffodil that is 2.5 cm tall.

One of the great things about being a museum curator is that I am always learning new things on the job. I have been a museum curator for 15 years.  In this time, my job has been to care for the mollusca collections but I have also now taken on the role of overseeing the care of the vertebrate collections. This has meant a whole raft of new things to learn and deal with, the least of which being that the animals all have backbones!

I was recently asked on behalf of the Sawfish Conservation Society (SCS) to investigate what sawfish rostra we have in our collections. So what is a sawfish? And what is a rostrum? Sawfish are incredible. They live in tropical and sub-tropical waters across the world. Also known as Carpenter sharks, they are in the same family as stingrays, electric rays and skates. Their characteristic feature is a long narrow nose extension called a rostrum which is lined with sharp teeth. These run down the length of the nose giving it the appearance of a saw.  To make this nose extension all the weirder, it is covered with electro sensitive pores that allow the sawfish to detect the smallest of movements on the sea floor. Little is known about the wild feeding strategies of sawfish, but it seems they skim the surface of the muddy sea floor looking for fish and crustacea, the way we might swish around a metal detector. The rostrum can be also be used to slash and impale anything that might be passing!

It is mostly due to this excellent nose that all sawfish species are listed as endangered or critically endangered. Seen as a curiosity, these sawfish rostra were prized by collectors. Overfishing and habitat destruction have had a devastating impact upon sawfish numbers, they have disappeared from at least 80-90% of the areas they once inhabited. They are now protected in a large number of countries making it illegal to harm them or trade in the removed saws.

The SCS has come up with a plan to help us better understand these amazing animals. They are partnering with researchers and institutes from around the world, which in the UK includes the Deep Aquarium and The Shark Trust, to launch the ‘See a Saw’ Citizen Science Sawfish Project.  Although the removal of saws has had a negative impact on their populations, researchers want to turn this negative into a positive. By using these saws to learn important information about them, they can then be used to conserve the remaining populations. They have the added bonus that the rostra are much easier to measure if the sawfish is not attached!

So with this in mind, I met with Al Reeve and his volunteer Sharon Williams from the South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre (SEWBRec). Al is an avid elasmobranch enthusiast and it is through him that the enquiry first reached me. We set about photographing, measuring and counting the teeth of a whole series of rostra from the collections. It was an amazing experience to handle these specimens and to learn so much from Al about this group of animals. In the future, we may also be taking tissue samples from these rostra to send on to researchers for analysis. I quote Jeff Whitty, Founder and co-administrator of SCS to explain why:

"The data and tissue samples will be used in multiple international studies to further sawfish management and conservation. Sawfish have been suggested to be the most threatened shark or ray in the world and yet we know little about them, which makes conserving the remaining populations difficult. The morphometric data that you provided will help us improve our identification guides of sawfish and will provide us with a better understanding of the distributions of these species. The tissue samples from the rostra will be used by multiple genetic studies that are exploring the differences in the genetic diversity between historic and contemporary populations of various sawfish species. Information from these genetic studies will allow us to better understand if genetic diversity in current populations have declined or remained steady through the years and thus will inform managers if genetic health of a sawfish species or population is a topic of concern."

It is an unbelievably rewarding experience to know that this work can in a small way contribute to the conservation of this most endangered and enigmatic animal. We are often asked why we hold collections in museums. What good can come out of preserving animals? Why would we want to keep such a negative reminder of the wildlife that we have slaughtered on mass in our past? And we can answer that some good can come out of it. To conserve, to learn, to educate, to enthuse, and to help us do things better in the future. It is a great job that I am privileged to hold.

You can learn more about Sawfish by going on the Sawfish Conservation website. You can find out more about the Sawfish project and who else is involved here, or watch this video about measuring saws.

Am dywydd diddorol Gyfeillion y Gwanwyn! Mae nifer ohonoch wedi sylwi ar faint mo cynnes oedd mis Rhagfur, a rhydych yn iawn! Wrth gymharu ein canlyniadau o 2011 i 2016, gallwn weld a Rhagfur 2016 oedd yr ail gynhesach ers dechrau'r prosiect. Ddim ond yn Rhagfur 2015 oedd tymherau yn uwch! Welodd Rhagfur 2016 hefyd y glawiad isaf ers dechrau'r prosiect, ac oriau golau haul gyfartaledd.

Beth am weithio allan eich darlleniadau cyfartal ar gyfer mis Tachwedd a Rhagfyr a chymharu heu’n hefo’r darlleniadau yn y tabl?

Mae nifer ohonoch wedi rhoi gwybod bod eich planhigion wedi cychwyn tyfu! Ydych chi'n meddwl y bydd y Crocws neu’r Cennin Pedr yn ymddangos yn gyntaf? Beth am edrych drwy’r adroddiad llynedd a chymharu'r dyddiau blodeuo ar gyfer y Crocws a’r Cennin Pedr i'ch helpu penderfynu pa un fydd yn tyfu’n gyntaf?

Mae fy mhlanhigion wedi cychwyn tyfu hefyd, rwyf wedi atodi llun. Plîs rhannwch eich lluniau fel bydda’n yn gallu dangos nhw ar fy blog nesaf!

Eich sylwadau:

Mae nifer ohonoch wedi sylwi ar pa mor gynnes oedd mis Rhagfyr ac wythnos gyntaf mis Ionawr:

Ysgol Pentrefoelas: Pawb allan yn chwarae yn y cae drwy'r wythnos gan ei bod yn braf iawn ac awyr glir bob dydd. Pawb yn rhyfeddu wrth weld mynyddoedd Eryri i gyd efom copaon clir drwy'r wythnos. Tywydd anhygoel o braf.

Athro’r Ardd: Rwy’n falch i glywed oedd gen ti dywydd braf. Mae’n siŵr oedd o’n rhyfedd weld y mynyddoedd heb eira ym fis Rhagfur. O be rwy’n dallt, bydd yr eira yn ôl wythnos yma!

Auchenlodment Primary School: What a warm week for December!

Lawhead School: We had very little rain this week and it was quite sunny too.

Hudson Road Primary School: Lots of warm days but quite windy!

Trellech Primary School: It was a lot warmer this week compared to last week. We can’t wait for our bulbs to grow.

Broad Haven Primary School: This week has been warmer and we have had fog. We break up next week.

Darran Park Primary: The temperature has risen over the week. Not much rainfall this week, quite a dry week.

Boston West Academy: There was barely any rain this week and all of the other weeks did have a lot of rainfall. The temperatures are very weird because they were on and off.

Stanford in the Vale Primary School: Hello, this week it has been warm, amazing because it is getting closer to Christmas. Some of the bulbs have started to pop up. Merry Christmas from Stanford!

YGG Tonyrefail: It was quite a warm week for December.

Severn Primary: We are surprised the plants are beginning to come up because it was so cold last week. It was much, much warmer this week. We had misty rain which didn't seem to end up in the collecting jar.

St Robert's R.C Primary School: Not too cold for the start of the year.

Mae llawer ohonoch wedi rhoi gwybod bod eich planhigion 'di cychwyn tyfu! Newyddion gwyllt Cyfeillion y Gwanwyn!

Beulah School: Mae rhai o'n bylbiau wedi dechrau tyfu.

Pirnmill Primary School: 20th December 2016. We noticed that three of the daffodils planted in the open ground had shoots poking through the soil. Is this too early?

Professor Plant: Hi Pirnmill Primary. A few schools have reported that their flowers have begun to bud! Mine have just poked their heads out of the soil! They began to appear about this time last year, but this is earlier than preceding years. Well done for looking after them so well!

Auchenlodment Primary School: We started back at school on Thursday. Some of our bulbs have started to sprout, we are all very excited!

Broad Haven Primary School: A frosty start to the week on Tuesday. On Friday it rained all day. Green shoots are appearing.

Diolch am yrru newyddion diweddaraf ac adborth ar y prosiect:

St Paul's C.I.W. Primary: Hello Pr.plant we have had a good week one girl who is a rainfall child said she is having a good time but she is sad that after Christmas she is not going to be a rainfall child so can you stop Mr. Wilson from trying to do that thank you for all your help from K and A.

Professor Plant: Hi K and A. I’m glad to hear that you are enjoying the project! Please thank the rainfall child for all her hard work. Hopefully she will have another role taking readings or logging data! If she is really enjoying the project she could always take her own readings at home. The Met Office have a website where people can share readings they’ve taken: http://wow.metoffice.gov.uk/ Maybe Mr. Wilson would be able to help her the first few times she enters data!

Coppull Parish Primary School: We had a mini disaster this week. The folder with results in was left out overnight in the rain. Although every page was completely sodden, and the file had to be binned. The relevant information was rescued by a group of y5 children including R, M and L.

Professor Plant: Hi Coppull Parish, I’m sorry to hear you’ve had trouble! I’m glad you managed to rescue your readings, well done all! The term planner and other resources are all available on the website, so you can print out new copies if these were badly damaged: https://museum.wales/spring-bulbs/

Tonyrefail Primary School: We lost the rain gage for Monday Tuesday Wednesday sorry

Professor Plant: Not to worry Tonyrefail Primary, I’m glad it turned up! Thank you for letting me know.

Stanford in the Vale Primary School: Hello,Did you have a nice Christmas? Monday, Tuesday we were all off school so that’s why it said no record. It has been really icy in the mornings. Bye Bye.

Professor Plant: Hi Stanford in the Vale Primary. I had a lovely Christmas thank you, did you? Thank you for letting me know why there were missing readings. Keep up the good work!

Diolch am yrru newyddion diweddaraf ar y tywydd yn ardal chi:

Ysgol Pentrefoelas: Cawsom law mawr iawn Dydd Iau a dydd Gwener. Dymsa'r tro cyntaf inni fethu mynd ALLAN i chwarae y tymor yma!

Garstang St. Thomas' CE Primary School: It was cold and rainy on Tuesday and we stayed in at playtime.

Carnbroe Primary School: Monday was freezing and the ground was solid but the other days were mild and the soil in our plant pots was moist. No sign of our plants blooming.

Darran Park Primary: This week there was quite a lot of rain.

St Paul's C.I.W. Primary:  Hello pr.plant rainfall on Monday we put was 50 but 60 is the real number bi.

Barmston Village Primary School: We have had a big change in temperature this week and got very wet on Thursday!

Arkholme CE Primary School: It has been cold and a bit wet apart from Tuesday. Hopefully it will snow soon .we have enjoyed it.

Daliwch ati Gyfeillion y Gwanwyn,

Athro'r Ardd