Chwefror 2012
Oerrrrrr
Mae'r tywydd wedi bod yn oer am y pythefnos diwethaf gyda rhannau o'r DU fod mor oer â finws 11 gradd Celsius! O ganlyniad, nid yw fy bylbiau wedi tyfu unrhyw dalach ers fy lluniau diwethaf. Efallai na fydd fy blodau Crocws yn agor tan canol Chwefror nawr.
Er gwaethaf y tywydd oer, nid ydym wedi cael gormod o rew neu eira yn y DU. Mae hyn oherwydd bod yr aer yn sych iawn ar hyn o bryd - gan fod y gwynt yn chwythu ar draws o Siberia. Llai iâ yn golygu llai o niwed i'n bylbiau - felly peidiwch â phoeni gormod os oes un chi wedi rhoi'r gorau i dyfu. Maent yn pethau bach caled ac maent yr un aros am cyfnod cynnes er mwyn blodeuo.
Gall pethau newid y penwythnos hwn yn ôl yr adroddiad diweddaraf y tywydd yn disgwyl eira! Gweler: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16866903
Mae ein hadroddiad tywydd oeraf yn dod o Ysgol Deganwy lle mae'r tymheredd bob amser yn is na sero. Gall fod yn oer yma ond i gymharu ag ardaloedd eraill o Ewrop, rydym yn ffodus iawn. Yn yr Wcráin mae pobol wedi bod yn dioddef yn wael iawn wrth i'r tymheredd gostwng i mor isel â-32C yn y gogledd a'r gorllewin.
Ysgol Porth y Felin yn adrodd bod eu bylbiau yn tyfu'n dda a hyd yn oed eu bylbiau dirgel wedi dechrau i dyfu. Gadewch i mi wybod os yw eich bylbiau dirgel wedi dechrau i dyfu?
Peidiwch ag anghofio anfon eich cofnodion tywydd wythnosol er mwyn sefyll gyfle i enillwch daith gweithgaredd natur!
Cadwch yn gynnes. Yr Athro Ardd.
www.museumwales.ac.uk/scan/bylbiau
Twitter http://twitter.com/Professor_Plant
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Ionawr 2012
Babis Gwyrdd yn Sain Fagan
Sul 4 Mawrth, Sul 1 Ebrill & 17-19 Ebrill
Er eu bod yn fach, mae babis yn gallu defnyddio llawer o adnoddau.Dewch draw i’r Tŷ Gwyrdd i rannu syniadau dros baned neu dysgu sut i roi dechreuad da a gwyrdd i’ch babi.
Baned am ddim am 11 o gloch neu galwch mewn unrhyw adeg rhwng 11-1 a 2-4 yn y Ty Gwyrdd yn sain Ffagan: Amgueddfa Werin Cymru.
http://www.amgueddfacymru.ac.uk/cy/digwyddiadau/?site=stfagans
Twitter.com/TyGwyrdd
Craft Sessions
We have been running a quilt club for just over a year and we've got quite a group of regulars who turn up on the first Saturday every two months for some patchworking and a chat. There must be something quilty in the air for 2012, as last time we met the group had doubled in size with lots of lovely new patchworkers turning up.
Samantha Jenkins leads the patchworking and quilting and you can see some of her work here she is full of great ideas and can solve all your patchwork problems!
I thought it might be time to try out some different craft sessions aimed at adults, so much in the same way that quilting club is run (relaxed and informal but with someone there to help if you get stuck) we are going to be trying out some similar sessions providing you with the chance to knit, make rag rugs, do some simple printing by hand and embroidery. Please visit the 'what's on' part of our website for more information, and please remember to book as spaces are limited.
Just to give you a bit of an idea of what is happening... I will be running the printing session, and we'll be looking at some lovely 1950s designs to come up with printing ideas, making simple printing blocks out of softblock (like lino but better) and printing on paper and fabric. I have turned one of my prints into a fabric brooch, and they would also be lovely as part of a patchwork quilt.
Amy Wheel will be taking our knitting session and will be basing the workshop on some of the socks we have in the collection. Amy is a regular at our quilt club and is also a fabulous knitter and super lovely too, so this should be a fun session! If you know how to knit you could have a go at making a sock, and if you don't you can learn and make something based on the sock designs.
Jane Dorsett will be leading the rag rug making session, and she asks that you bring along a bag of clean unwanted clothes, apparently old T-shirts are great for the job.
Jane has run numerous rag rug sessions in schools, community groups and galleries and there is a lot of interest in this session already so book right away!
The embroidery sessions will be run by Becky Adams and she will be basing some of the designs on the needlecases that we have in our collections here at St Fagans: National History Museum.
Becky has previously worked in St Fagans: National History Museum on our Keepsakes project and has run numerous art and craft sessions for all ages as well as being a wonderful artist in her own right.
I've added some photos showing some patchwork made in quilt club. If you have a photo of your work in progress, please email me with it as it's great to see what everyone is making! My email address is sian.lile@museumwales.ac.uk
Here are the crafty dates for your diary. Booking is essential as spaces are limited, so please phone 029 2057 3414 to keep a space.
3 March 11am-12.30pm - Quilt Club
17 March 11am-12.30pm - Knitting
31 March 11am-12.30pm - Embroidery
14 April 11am-12.30pm - Printing
28 April 11am-12.30pm - Embroidery
12 May 10.30am-12.30pm - Rag Rugs
19 May 11am-12.30pm - Knitting
26 May 10.30am-12.30pm - Rag Rugs
7 July 11am-12.30pm - Quilt Club
1 Sept 11am-12.30pm - Quilt Club
3 Nov 11am-12.30pm - Quilt Club
All sessions are free and some materials are provided to get you started. If you are taking part in the rag rug sessions please bring along some old clothes or fabric.
The Pin Lifting Challenge. Excavating Roman objects from a soil block
Everything has now been recorded, so the next step is to lift the pins! The decorative pins were once attached to an organic material, possibly leather, this has now gone, replaced by soil and once the soil has been removed there will be nothing holding the pins together. So the challenge is to lift and conserve the pins in such a way to preserve the original fish scale pattern and any dimensions of the group, which may help identify this mystery object in the future.
A bit of a challenge, so I decided to lift only small sections at a time, which does mean breaking up the largest surviving section unfortunately, but I should be able to reconstruct this later.
In the first image you can see that some of the pins are facing up and some facing down, indicating that the material the pins were once attached to was folded, this has perished leaving the pins in this position. So now it’s not just a mystery object it’s also a layered mystery object! Oh joy!
On the next image, outlined in white, is the first section to be tackled; I thought I’d start with the smallest and simplest first! The upper surface of the pins is faced up with Japanese tissue and adhesive. Once dry I excavate round and under the section then lift and turn it over.
Not as straight forward as I thought as something new appears, not just pins, but a disc headed stud. The x-ray also reveals the remains of a chain, plus a line of dome headed studs
On cleaning, the chain can clearly be seen attached to the stud and would have once been suspended from it, possibly linking up to another stud elsewhere on the armour. There are also enough dome headed studs running in a line to suggest they were part of a deliberate pattern. The remains of a tinned surface and therefore white metal finish survive on the upper surface of the stud and at the end of the pin there is a washer or rove identical to that on the plaque featured on the previous blog. So there is a good chance that they were once part of the same object, but again it’s too early to be sure.
The disc and pins are now cleaned and preserved, in the last photo they are laid out as they were in the ground. The dome headed pins were in direct contact with the disc suggesting they were on the same layer as the stud, which was facing downwards in the soil and attached to something folded under the layer with fish scale pins, which were facing up. Hope that makes sense!
Now to tackle the next section and I have a feeling that this may be full of surprises as well.
Gwylio'r crocws!
Crocws:
Gwyliwch eich crocws yn ofalus iawn dros yr wythnosau nesaf. Gall blodeuo ar unrhyw adeg nawr, yn enwedig os yw eich ysgol yn y De neu ger yr arfordir. Gweler yr adroddiadau isod o ysgolion sydd wedi gweld arwyddion bod eu blodau ar y ffordd.
Ers 6 Ionawr fy Nghrocws wedi tyfu 1cm yn dalach. Mae'r dail bach a blagur wedi gwthio drwy'r pridd, felly rwy'n rhagweld y byddaf yn cael rhywfaint o flodau'r wythnos nesaf, neu'r un ar ôl. Gweler fy llun a'i gymharu ag eich pen eich hun.
Cennin Pedr:
Mae fy Nghennin Pedr yn 6 cm dalach, ond rwy'n credu y gallent eu cymryd 3-5 wythnos arall i flodeuo.
Mae'r cennin Pedr wnes I blannu yn hydref 2010 eisoes wedi tyfu eu blagur, felly dylai fod dim ond wythnos neu ddwy nawr cyn iddynt flodeuo. Edrychwch ar y lluniau i wybod beth i edrych am - pan fydd rhai chi yn dechrau ymddangos.
Atebion i'ch sylwadau:
Westwood CP School - Bulbs are starting to push through - no flowers yet - not too far away. Prof.P: Great news - I can't wait to see the pics!
Ysgol Bro Cinmeirch - Wythnos gwlyb iawn yma! Athro Ardd: Gobeithio bod y bwrw wedi gorffen nawr!
Stanford in the Vale School - Dear Professor plant. What a week! Bitter cold at the start of the week and then considerably warmer towards the end of the week! The children have been hoping for snow :-) Kind regards, Gardening Club. Prof.P: Yes the weather has been very changeable, snow would be lovely but it could harm the flowers!
Woodplumpton Primary School - We are excited that some of our bulbs have started to grow. Now we are looking closely every day and worrying a bit about ones that haven't appeared! Prof.P: Great that some bulbs are coming through, don't worry about the others they should come in their own good time!
Christchurch CP School - Some of the bulbs started to grow. Green shoots have started to come though! Excellent news! Prof.P: Watch them very carefully now.
Laugharne VCP School - We were very excited when we returned to school after the Christmas break to discover that 8 of our daffodils and one of our crocuses have started to grow! We couldn't believe it very early! Prof.P: So exciting! Keep watching to catch those flowering dates.
Tom Sharpe's Antarctic Diary
Sunday 4 December 2011
A bright, clear, sunny morning gave us our first good look at Macquarie Island, its straight steep eastern side plunging into the sea. On the shore we could see a beach packed with King penguins.
We had hoped to take the zodiacs out to cruise amongst the swimming Kings but a southerly wind was too strong and the swell too big for safety. But the Kings came to us instead. They are curious birds, and hundreds of them swam all around the ship.
Soon it was time to leave and we set off along the eastern side of Macquarie and out into the Southern Ocean. Once well out of sight of land, we were accompanied by several pairs of light-mantled sooty albatross which soared alongside our ship.
Below, skimming the waves, flashes of blue were Antarctic prions, while farther out, the huge white wingspan of a wandering albatross swept back and forth low above the water.
Monday 5 December 2011
It’s going to take us two full days at sea to our next landfall, at Hobart in Tasmania, where my Antarctic journey will end. So all day today we’ve been rolling back and forth in the swell of the Tasman Sea and we’ve another day of it to go.
This is the time to look back on where we’ve been and what we’ve seen. A visit to Antarctica is always special, but this visit to the Ross Sea has been truly extraordinary. It’s a difficult place to get to - we had to break our way through 900 miles of pack ice to reach 77o 50’ South - and the landscape is like no other. It’s one of those places where you find it hard to believe that you are really there.
It’s been an amazing and moving experience to visit the century-old huts of the Scott and Shackleton expeditions, and one can only be in awe of their achievements, not just in their exploration of new lands but in the scientific work they did here, often in the severest conditions.
Having been to their expedition bases and to some of the sites they visited, I’m looking forward to re-reading the accounts of their expeditions, and especially that of Scott’s last expedition, the centenary of which will be marked next year with a number of events in the UK.
I’m sure that much of what I’ve seen and experienced on this trip deep below the Antarctic Circle will enhance our forthcoming exhibition, Captain Scott:South for Science, and the activities we have planned around it. But for now, it’s back to the rolling sea.
Blodau gwyllt y gaeaf
Efallai, i chi yn cofio ein lluniau rhyfedd o rosod a llygad y dydd yn blodeuo ym mis Rhagfyr? Wel, mae botanegwr, Dr Tim Rich, sy'n gweithio ar gyfer Amgueddfa Cymru wedi ymchwilio ymhellach i mewn i'r digwyddiadau anarferol.
Ar ddiwrnod y flwyddyn newydd fe gyfrif faint o wahanol fathau o blanhigion oedd yn blodeuo yn y gaeaf. Canfu fod y tywydd cynnes wedi caniatáu 63 anhygoel blodau gwyllt i flodeuo, sy'n llawer mwy na'r cyfartaledd arferol o 20-30 rhywogaeth. Gweler y newyddion adroddiadau isod sy'n egluro canfyddiadau ei ymchwiliad.
Efallai y gallech chi gyfrif y nifer o blanhigion gwyllt sydd yn blodeuo o gwmpas eich ysgol? Danfonwch un rhyw luniau i mewn. Yn y cyfamser, yr wyf wedi cael llawer o adroddiadau o ysgolion yn dweud wrthyf fod eu cennin Pedr a chrocws yn dechrau tyfu!
Cysylltiadau:
BBC Breakfast bore heddiw a BBC News yn fyw drwy'r dydd
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16503250
Gwrandwch ar Tim Rich ar raglen Roy Noble BBC Radio Wales am 3pm
Gwrandwch eto ar Tim Rich ar raglen Today ar BBC Radio 4 bore heddiw http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9675000/9675422.stm
BBC Wales Online http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-16465133
www.museumwales.ac.uk/scan/bylbiau
Dilynwch fi ar Twitter http://twitter.com/Professor_Plant
Dilynwch Professor Plant ar Facebook
Blwyddyn Newydd o Archwilio Natur yn Sain Ffagan
Y peth cyntaf i’w wneud eleni yw dymuno Blwyddyn Newydd Dda i bawb! Roedd 2011 yn flwyddyn brysur iawn i’r project Archwilio Natur yma yn Sain Ffagan. Cafodd y project ei lansio’n swyddogol ym mis Ebrill, gydag amserlen lawn o ddigwyddiadau drwy gydol y gwanwyn a’r haf oedd yn cymryd golwg fanylach ar fywyd gwyllt diddorol yr Amgueddfa.
Diolch yn fawr i bawb ddaeth i gymryd rhan yn ein digwyddiadau gan wylio adar yn y guddfan, chwilio am fadfallod dŵr yn y pwll neu wylio’r ystlumod pedol lleiaf drwy ein camera is-goch. Peidiwch â phoeni os methoch chi’r digwyddiadau, bydd cyfleon eto yn ddiweddarach yn y flwyddyn. Bydd rhagor o fanylion yn ymddangos ar dudalennau Digwyddiadau. http://www.amgueddfacymru.ac.uk/cy/digwyddiadau/?site=stfagans
Mae’r guddfan adar yn dal yn agored i ymwelwyr wrth gwrs. Mae’n leoliad gwych i ymlacio a gwylio adar y goedwig yn bwydo wrth i chi gerdded llwybr y goedwig. Dwi’n siŵr bod yr adar yn gwerthfawrogi’r bwyd gan ei bod hi’n aml yn anodd iddyn nhw ganfod bwyd yn y gaeaf, â hithau mor oer hefyd! Os yw’r guddfan braidd yn oer, gallwch chi wylio rhai o’r adar yn bwydo o gynhesrwydd y Cwt Natur yn Oriel 1, neu o gartref hyd yn oed. http://www.amgueddfacymru.ac.uk/cy/coedwig/gwylltgamerau/Bwydo_adar_gam/
Mae mis Ionawr yn amser delfrydol i chi ddysgu pa adar sy’n ymweld â’ch gerddi chi. Bydd yr RSPB yn cynnal eu Big Garden Bird Watch dros benwythnos 28-29 Ionawr. Beth am gymryd awr i wylio’r ardd a chofnodi pa adar sy’n ymweld. Gallwch chi gofrestru a dysgu rhagor ar wefan yr RSPB. http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/
Dyma ni’n manteisio ar y tywydd sych, ond gwyntog iawn y bore ‘ma i osod blychau nythu. Rydyn ni’n gobeithio denu Titwod Mawr i un blwch, a Robiniaid i’r llall. Mae camera yn y ddau, felly dylen ni gael lluniau da o unrhyw wyau a chywion os bydd yr adar yn cael eu denu. Byddwn ni’n rhannu unrhyw luniau gyda chi wrth gwrs!
Os oes gennych chi ddiddordeb yn ein bywyd gwyllt ni a digwyddiadau natur yn yr Amgueddfa, gallwch chi ein dilyn ni ar Twitter ar www.twitter.com/Nature_StFagans neu anfonwch ebost at natur.sainffagan@amgueddfacymru.ac.uk
Tom Sharpe's Antarctic Diary
Sunday 27 November 2011
We’ve been slowly breaking through heavy pack ice as we travel around Ross Island to see the Ross Ice Shelf. But we’ve the view of the volcanoes of Ross Island, including Mount Erebus, which has made up for it.
We saw a rocky headland at the eastern end of Ross Island - Cape Crozier, the site of an Emperor penguin rookery, famous as the destination of The Worst Journey in the World. Edward Wilson, Birdie Bowers and Apsley Cherry-Garrard of Scott’s last expedition sledged the 60 miles from the other side of the island in the intense cold and 24 hour darkness of the Antarctic winter to collect Emperor eggs, believing that these would shed light on the evolutionary relationships between reptiles and birds. The journey was an epic one, with temperatures down to -60oC. It was so cold, their teeth cracked. Their tent blew away and they nearly died. Cherry-Garrard’s book is a classic of Antarctic exploration literature.
Passing Cape Crozier, ahead of us loomed the huge white cliff of the Great Ice Barrier, the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. Discovered by James Clark Ross in 1841, it is one of the great natural wonders of the world. A vertical wall of floating ice rising 30 metres above the surface of the sea (and about 270 metres below), the edge of the ice shelf extends for 600 km. The ice shelf itself is enormous - a mass if floating ice the size of France.
Strong winds were blowing off the top of the ice shelf today, carrying snow in great sweeps down the face of the ice cliff. James Clark Ross saw it as a formidable barrier to southward travel.
Thursday 1 December 2011
The Ross Ice Shelf is about as far south as you can take a ship on this planet, so from here the only way to go is north. Our original plan was to head towards the west coast of the Ross Sea for some landings on the mainland, but the sea ice is way too thick.
Down by the Ice Shelf, we were in a large area of open water, but the current in the Ross Sea carries the ice clockwise and it has piled up against the west coast. So instead we’re heading out of the Ross Sea. We’ve spent three days breaking through the pack ice and broke into the open water of the Southern Ocean last night. It was foggy and snowing this morning. We’re now about 570 miles from Macquarie Island and skirting the eastern side of a deep low pressure system. The waves in that low are about 8 metres high, but here they are only 5 metres or so. Around us, albatrosses wheel in the wind.
These days at sea are times for lectures and other activities. This morning I lectured on the links between Wales and Antarctica and the support Scott’s expedition received from Cardiff and Wales. There was a lot of interest in our planned exhibition and a number of people have expressed an interest in coming to see it. Some are even thinking of coming from the US and combining visits to the exhibitions in London and Cardiff, which would be great.
Saturday 3 December 2011
We’ve not been on land since last Saturday. We spent three days breaking ice in the Ross Sea and another three in the rolling waters of the Southern Ocean.
It’s not been quite as calm as it was on the way south. We’ve been rolling at about 30o and pitching as well, so we’ve had an uncomfortable time being thrown about. But now land is in sight. We’re sailing along the coast of Macquarie Island. It’s in the middle of nowhere, a sliver of land in the vast southern ocean.
It’s a cold, grey, damp and foggy day. We landed near the northern end of the island at an Australian research station and staff there showed us around their facilities, which, being an Australian base, includes not only a bar, but a brewery. The station is surrounded by a sturdy fence to keep out the elephant seals, big, heavy, noisy, smelly animals that would flatten anything and everything. Outside the station, they are everywhere. The geology around here is fascinating. The island is a slice of ocean floor which has been uplifted along the boundary between the Australian and Pacific plates.
After lunch we landed at a bay on the island’s east coast on a beach crowded with King penguins and the much smaller Royal penguins with their bright yellow crests. Walking through the surf along the shore, with penguins come in and out of the water around my feet was a special experience. A short walk north along the shore took us to a colony of King penguins where it was hard to believe that the comical, dumpy, brown, fluffy ‘okum boys’ which are the immature Kings would eventually turn into such beautiful adult birds. At the back of the beach, a penguin highway busy with Royals led uphill to a huge, noisy, densly packed throng of many thousands of the birds, some with tiny chicks at their feet.
Unearthing more mystery objects from a soil block lifted during excavations at the Roman site of Caerleon
The second significant object in the same block as the pins (highlighted in the previous blog in this series) is an unusually shaped bronze sheet decorated with a stud depicting a human head. The head is wearing what appears to be a Phrygian cap. This type of soft, conical shaped hat with the top flopping forward was originally associated with people from the eastern part of the Roman Empire.
The head, cast in solid bronze, measures from ear to ear about 2cm. Soil and debris obscure the detail but I can see under this the features of a face peeking through, including large almond shaped eyes and curly hair poking out from under the cap. Looks a bit of a mischievous character to me!
The bronze sheet is an odd shape too; the edges are damaged and eroded in places. I’ve indicated with a black line the surviving edges I can be sure of. The damage on the other edges means unfortunately that they may not reflect the original dimensions of the object.
The sheet is not flat either, these bends and folds in the metal look like they were made in antiquity as the original patina is still smooth and undamaged around these areas. If the metal had been bent after the green patina was formed then this fragile surface would have cracked and flaked off revealing the metal below. So was this metal sheet originally wrapped round something more three dimensional? Difficult to say at this stage, it is also possible it got damaged in antiquity when flung on a pile of other armour and scrap, before it finally got buried. It’s amazing such delicate objects have survived at all!
When the sheet was lifted and turned over, four metal pins were found protruding out of the back. One, in the middle, belonged to the decorative stud; the pin had been punctured through the sheet to secure it. The three smaller pins are part of the sheet, created during the original casting by the looks of things.
Where the metal had been lifted there was a dark stain in the soil, probably the only evidence we will ever have that an organic material was once present. Among this there were fragments of a small doughnut shaped object. On further examination its original location could be identified as it was dislodged when the plate was lifted. The object lined up with the central stud and is in fact a washer or rove associated with securing items to leather. Two other tiny roves were found and all 3 have now been reattached to the pins at the back of the sheet. These now give us an indication of the thickness of the original backing material, which is about 3mm. The possible association with leather links this object to the pins lying near by. These were also applied to a flexible backing like leather; therefore there is a strong possibility that these artifacts were part of the same object, but more work has to be done to establish this.
cofnodion diweddar
The Pin Lifting Challenge. Excavating Roman objects from a soil block
