Daffodil Picture Diary Danielle Cowell, 22 February 2008 Here is my Daffodil Picture Diary.Each week I will be uploading new pictures of my Daffodil plants - as they grow! Compare them with your own. Don't forget to take part in the Crocus Drawing Competiton to win prizes!Professor Plant Back to Spring bulbs homepage
Spring dips its toe in Gareth Bonello, 20 February 2008 It is mid February and the wet and windy weather that persisted throughout January has given way to clearer skies. The days have been sunny and bright but quite cold at the same time, and the clear nights are leaving ponds and puddles iced over long into the morning.Many of the early signs that spring is on the way have been on show for a few weeks now. Snowdrops have been up since late January and hazel catkins have been swinging in the breeze since the beginning of the month. Primrose and lesser celandines have also been growing about the site since mid February. The hawthorn bushes are growing fresh green leaves and the daffodils are flowering too. I’ve also seen quite a few bumblebees since the start of the month and I found a lone ladybird perching on a twig.Amphibians such as frogs and newts filling up small ponds are a good indicator that spring is truly here, because it means the water is warming up. I found a few newts in the tannery pits last week but it’s still a bit too cold for them with the water prone to freezing in the night. Keep your eyes peeled for frogs spawning around the beginning of March when it’s a bit warmer. Listen out too for chiffchaffs singing later in March. They are usually one of the first of our migrant bird species to arrive from Africa.Last week was the school half term holidays and I ran workshops based on spotting the signs of spring. Over 1200 visitors took part in a leaf quiz, and went out spotting spring flowers and birds with my spring trails. You can download spring trails and record what you’ve seen on the Nature Detectives website. You can also visit the brand new Exploring Our Woodlands website which will be taking shape over the next few weeks.
Dreaming sometimes is not enough 31 January 2008 George Evans waiting to go on shift at Banwen colliery Glo: 'N C bloody B' [PDF 7 MB] First of January, 1947: The coalmines of Great Britain were taken into public ownership. It was something that every miner in Britain had wanted, had dreamt about indeed had been praying for. The often callous and brutal treatment of coalminers over the years by both mine owners and management had nurtured a contempt that bordered on hatred. There were three British miners killed every single working day at the time. So there was genuine rejoicing. The National Coal Board standard flew proudly at every pithead, the NCB gold logo on a blue field. Only thirteen years earlier 266 miners, had been burnt to death in a north Wales pit. Only 16 bodies were ever recovered and no one properly brought to book. So the rejoicing was truly heartfelt in every coalfield on this island. No one expected miracles from nationalisation but people became slowly aware of a giant incompetence, a kind of disjointed progress to somewhere, but no one knew exactly where. One instance that I witnessed was when I was standing in for the underground engine driver in the Eighteen Feet seam. The rope on the main winding engine was about an inch and half in diameter and perhaps about a mile long. The manager, John Williams, was having a heated argument with some blokes from HQ. They wanted to replace the existing rope with a much thicker longer rope. The new rope was fitted and proved to be too heavy for the weight of the journey (train of trams) to pull the length of the drift. What it cost to put that stupid blunder right goodness only knows. And that sort of crack-brained, hugely expensive blunder was happening a dozen times a day, in every coalfield in the country. One or two of the colliers were over seventy years of age but filling as much coal as most and earning a tidy wage. We came out one Thursday off afternoon shift and picked up our pay dockets. The old timers had an envelope attached to theirs with a crude little note inside telling them they were on 14 days notice. No pension, no redundancy, nothing - and one or two of the old chaps had started work at 13 years of age! John Williams had the old men brought back for a day, signed them on and kept them in the canteen until the end of the shift. That meant that the old fellers qualified for one pound a week colliery pension. I became disgusted with the behaviour of the National Coal Board. Men had struggled over the years to bring about nationalisation - they had even gone to prison! With each day that passed it became more and more apparent that trying to run the coal industry of Britain from a posh address in Belgravia wasn't working. Everywhere you looked there was disorderliness in planning and organisation. Still, work went on at the coal face in spite of it all. With the advantage of hindsight we are now able to see an industry, colossal in size, massively underfunded for many, many years and generally very badly managed. Maybe if someone had thought of asking, or if someone had had the courage to ask, say the head of Boots the Chemist or the head of Austin Cars to take charge, or demand co-operatives to be set up then perhaps the dream would have become reality. The one positive thing that the miners got from nationalisation was that health and safety improved out of all recognition. This article forms part of a booklet in the series 'Glo'produced by Big Pit: National Mining Museum. You can download the booklet here: Glo: 'N C bloody B' [PDF 7 MB]
Crocus Picture Diary Gareth Bonello, 25 January 2008 Here is my Crocus Picture Diary.Each week I will be uploading new pictures of my Crocus plants - as they grow! Compare them with your own.Don't forget to take part in the Crocus Drawing Competiton to win prizes!Professor Plant Back to Spring bulbs homepage
In the Bleak Midwinter Gareth Bonello, 18 January 2008 It’s been very wet and windy over the past few months, with just the occasional sunny spell breaking through before the miserable midwinter weather sets in again. The weather has made wildlife watching hard, with most of the birds keeping their heads down to avoid getting blown away! I have noticed however, during my wanders in the brief sunny breaks, that the birds seem a lot tamer and don’t fly away as readily as they usually do. The reason is probably that their energy reserves are low and so they are trying to conserve as much energy by doing as little as possible. Either that or they are just so used to visitors that they simply don’t mind anymore. I swear there was a Robin following me around yesterday…The project is quickly racing towards the natural extravaganza that is the springtime. The information panels for the path are written, and we’re finalising the design. The wildlife cameras will be here soon (I can’t wait!) and a flash new website is on the way too. I’m also busy preparing worksheets for families and lesson plans and resources for teachers, so it’s all very hectic, but should make the spring and summer a very special time indeed. I've had enough of the winter now, bring on the spring!
