5th November saw the Our Museum Project Partners arrive at St Fagans to experience a day in the life of a volunteer at the museum. Luck was on our side, the weather was with us and we were all ready for a fantastic day.

The St Fagans Our Museum project has been going from strength to strength. The Initiative is funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and aims at bringing museums and communities together. The St Fagans project hopes to do this by building a community of volunteers at the museum.

Over the past year the museum has been working with a dedicated group of Community Partners who are supporting us on the project. They have been involved in decision making every step of the way and are now fully embedded into the Our Museum initiative and the project at St Fagans.

To give the Community Partners a better sense of what it is like to volunteer at the museum, we felt that a day spent on site, carrying out different activities alongside staff would work well. So, we set about preparing an action packed day!

Everyone was extremely keen and it was felt that this would be a great way of getting to know each other in an informal setting.

So, the morning of 5th November saw us all trekking up to the Castel Garden’s where we spent a busy morning digging up the old rose bed in preparation for re planting with Peter and Gareth from the Gardening Team. The sun was shining and we all had a fantastic time. Everyone entered into the competitive spirit as we were split into two groups to dig the patch, the aim being to meet in the middle.

After a fascinating talk from Owain Rhys on the recent Refugee House project we enjoyed a delicious lunch before venturing out on site again with Ian Daniel, Steve Burrow and Janet Wilding. Up to the Celtic Village for an afternoon of clay making, daubing and copper beating.

We all really enjoyed the activities and got thoroughly muddy in the process. Through discussions with staff the Community Partners were able to see how the Our Museum Project will fit into the exciting re development of St Fagans.

Thank you to everyone involved for making the day such a great success! Hats off to the volunteers!

Last chance to have a go at the Animal and Plants Games Trail

The Animal and Plants Games Trail is in its last remaining weeks at National Museum Cardiff. Look for the Cheetah coin symbol in our Lower and Upper Natural History galleries, Evolution of Wales, Natural World and Origins galleries to follow it.

You can also follow the trail by picking up one of the colourful Animal and Plant Games leaflets. They can be found on a stand near the entrance to the Evolution of Wales gallery, near the top of the stairs to the restaurant. Alternatively, you can ask in the Clore Discovery Centre.

But hurry, the trail will be taken down in the New Year and the leaflets are running out fast!

Animals and plants have to compete every day to survive. Strength, size, speed and agility can all help give them an advantage over competitors. Along the trail you can discover specimens of record breaking plants and animals such as: the famously fast Cheetah, the small but strong Dung Beetle, deadly Rosary Peas and record breaking cones from the Big Cone Pine!

A species of fly new to Britain has been found from the Wye Valley by scientist Adrian Plant, working at Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales. Platypalpus nigricoxa is thought to be a boreo-alpine relict (left behind when ice retreated at the end of the last glacial period). Apart from the Wye valley, it is only known from the extreme north of Scandinavia, the Kola peninsula in northern Russia and some mountains in eastern Europe.

Wiw! Dyna ddechrau gwych i gofnodi tywydd eleni. Mae pedwar deg chwech o ysgolion wedi danfon cofnodion i mewn ac mae mwy yn dod fel yr wyf deipio! Cafodd y prosiect ei grybwyll hefyd yn y South Wales Echo a'r Oxford Times.

Wiw! Dyna ddechrau gwych i gofnodi tywydd eleni. Mae pedwar deg chwech o ysgolion wedi danfon cofnodion i mewn ac mae mwy yn dod fel yr wyf deipio! Cafodd y prosiect ei grybwyll hefyd yn y South Wales Echo a'r Oxford Times

Os ydych chi erioed wedi meddwl beth yw eich bylbiau yn wneud unwaith mae wedi’i phlannu,  beth am wneud y llyfryn origami bach hwn! Bywyd cudd y bwlb gan Athro'r Ardd. (Fersiwn lliw) (Fersiwn llenwi'r bylchau) (Sut i wneud)

Mae llawer ohonoch wedi anfon sylwadau a chwestiynau - gwelwch fy atebion isod:

Ysgol Nant Y Coed - "We have had rain this week but not enough to measure. We've enjoyed keeping the records this week" Prof.P: "Thanks for the info and delighted to hear you are enjoying being a scientist!"

St Mary's Catholic Primary School - "Hello, we have had no rain this week". Prof. P: "Hi St Mary's - Welcome to the project - keep up the good work!"

Greyfriars RC Primary School - "Hi we are really enjoying this" Prof.P: "So glad you are enjoying!"

Nether Kellet Primary School - "It has been hard to remember to keep track of the bulb project since it's only our first week. We forgot to cheek on Wednesday so we went on the weather forecast. Do you own the museum we are gathering information for? We really enjoyed collecting the weather information and are 'into' the project now!" Prof.P: "Yes I agree it can be tricky to remember in the beginning, good idea to check with your local forecast when you forget, delighted that you are enjoying it now! I don't own the Museum but I work here so I guess it own me ;-) The Museum is owned by the people of Wales, part of my job is to help people understand and enjoy the weird and wonderful collections we have. I'm very lucky!"

Thorneyholme RC Primary School - "We are enjoying growing and looking after our bulbs.
We love your hair-do and your glasses!!" Prof.P: "Thanks no one has ever complimented me on my hair or glasses before - you've made my day! Glad you're enjoying!"

Ysgol Clocaenog - "Diolch am y bylbiau. Mae hi wedi bod yn wythnos dda i'r bylbiau oherwydd dydi hi ddim wedi bod yn rhy oer ac mae hi wedi bwrw glaw. Athro'r Ardd: Dim problem, dwi'n falch i glywed bod y tywydd yn dda i'r bylbiau".

Medlar with Wesham CE Primary School - "Hi Professor plant. We have not yet watered our plants because it has rained a lot. Prof.P: "Yes that is good, it's important that your bulbs don't get too wet or too dry."

Glyncollen Primary School - "Thank you for the bulbs. We are looking forward to when they grow." Prof.P: "You're welcome! You should start to see some growth after Christmas!”

Ysgol Deganwy - "We have moved our pots to the south side of our mobile classroom against a wall. There has been some building work on the previous north side which meant we couldn't put our pots there." Prof.P: Thanks for letting me know. They should get a lot more sun on the South side too.

Henllys CIW Primary - "Rainfall on Thursday 8 November was 0.5 mm; Rainfall on Friday 9 November was 0.1mm." Prof.P: "Thanks for these details - very accurate recording!"

St Joseph's Primary School (Penarth) - "We were interested to see that the temperature remained the same for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, even though we thought that it felt colder." Prof.P: "That is interesting; sometimes the wind can make it feel colder. It you have two thermometers you could check if they say the same thing."

Westwood CP School - "Cloudy but dry week apart for some rain on Friday. Temperature are not too bad yet but I'm sure worse is to come!" Prof.P: "Thanks for the update and Welcome to the project again this year!"

Stanford in the Vale Primary School - "Dear Professor Plant. First week of observations...Monday really cold with sharp frosts to the ground...then Thursday warm and sunny blue sky's amazing. No rain has been recorded as we have had no rainfall. Best Wishes. Stanford in the Vale Gardening Club." Prof.P: "Thanks for the observations, a real mixture of weather - keep up the good work!"

Diolch

Athro'r Ardd

www.museumwales.ac.uk/scan/bylbiau

www.twitter.com/professor_plant