We have just launched our self-guided mindful tour here at St Fagans National Museum of History. The tour is through the gardens around St Fagans Castle. Our new free fold-out map of the gardens encourages visitors to take in their surroundings and explore their different senses.

The idea of the tour came from my own experience of using mindfulness for my mental health. St Fagans Castle gardens are beautiful all year round with animals and plants to see whatever the time of year. It is also a place where you can usually find a bit of quiet even during our busier times. Mindfulness is about being in the moment and focusing on individual senses. It’s surprising how much passes us by when we’re focused on our busy lives. Just stopping and concentrating on what you can smell or hear can help in times of stress.

Having the opportunity to walk around the gardens and take in the sights, sounds, smells and textures of nature has been very calming for me. My particular favourite is the Italian Garden in the summer with the running fountain. I feel incredibly lucky to work somewhere where I can do this and I wanted to share it with everyone who visits St Fagans.

Last summer I created a draft plan of a map to test with staff and community groups. Even though it was a very basic map at the time the feedback was very positive:

"Wir wedi mwynhau’r daith - diolch Joe! Braf cael cyfle i grwydro gerddi’r castell a mwynhau’r awyr iach. Diolch!"

“Lovely and peaceful, I like the sound of the water. The gardens were beautiful and very relaxing.”

"Wedi mwynhau gwylio’r colomennod ar ben y colomendy."

“Lots of quiet, secluded areas to sit down. I did find myself stopping to take note of my senses – smelling leaves, listening to the birds”

"Gall hwn fod un o highlights newydd SF"

“It felt like I had permission to take time and look and explore which was so nice.”

The feedback fed into the creation of the final version. It is designed by Frank Duffy who has done a great job of the illustrations and the look of the map. The map was funded by the Armed Forces Covenant who have supported a range of innovative events, displays and programmes at the Museum since 2014. One of the aims of the funding is to support the wellbeing of veterans and their families, so the concept of the mindfulness walk fitted in perfectly with the Covenant’s objectives. Members of the Armed Forces community had a first look at the new maps on 9^th December 2019 with very positive feedback for how it could be used to help those living with mental ill health.

Try the tour out for yourself by picking up a copy at St Fagans. The map is available at the front desk or you can download a PDF version here.

At 507 years of age Ming the clam broke the Guinness World Record as the oldest animal in the world. Collected off the coast of Iceland in 2006, initial counts of the annual rings of the shell put the age at around 405 years old, which was still a record breaker. However, in 2013 scientists re-examined the shell using more precise techniques and the count rose to 507 years old.

This is the actual shell that was used in the aging study

Some examples of how long animals live

Our Insight gallery showcases research on the Natural World and displays a tiny percentage of our vast collections 

Come and see Ming in our Insight gallery

A guest post by Izzy McLeod

I've been a lifelong fan of dinosaurs, as a toddler I'd request a whole dinosaur book be read to me every night before bed.  So I was pretty sad when The Natural History Museum in London said goodbye to Dippy the Diplodocus in exchange for a whale (whales are cool, but they're not quite dinosaurs). But soon the news that Dippy was on tour was out and he was coming to Cardiff just as I was also returning, I had to go and see him, and a few weeks ago I did!

So I was already at National Museum Cardiff, Dippy was there, life was good. But then I found the Dippy About Nature exhibition which mixed dinosaurs with climate activism. It was like two of my favourite worlds had collided in the best way. So I am here to introduce you to that exhibition and why it was so amazing!

With prehistoric displays made of recycled clothing, it was like someone had taken interests out of my brain and slapped them together into an excellent exhibition. Plus there was information on how to ditch fast fashion and cut carbon emissions.

I'm well aware this exhibition was not made for me, but it really felt like it was. I don't think I've seen anything more me in my life. Dinosaurs and activism? Yes please!

There were several displays of different aspects of the era of dinosaurs, all made from recycled clothing and depicting scenes like the K-T mass extinction, and watery scenes with facts about ocean pollution from the fashion industry and it just worked so well!

There was also more of a kids' section with drawing activities and an interactive learning section.

Asking questions like:

What percentage of global carbon emissions come from the fashion industry?

How can we change our fashion habits?

What changes can we make in our diet to reduce carbon emissions?

How much rubbish to we produce in the UK each year?

What else can we do?

With pictures of dinosaurs recycling! I am a fan.

Though this exhibition is small, it makes an impact, and I think it does a really good job of getting involved and interacting with fashion and climate activism whilst also keeping it involved and relevant to the rest of the museum (plus it was kid friendly).

I'm also happy to say that now this exhibition has ended, the activism continues in the museum, as National Museum Cardiff have now set aside a space in the museum specifically for activism, which I think is an amazing idea. It's a part of the Kick the Dust project and if you're a youth then you can get involved with the museum's Youth Forum and have a say about what they put on there (which I may well join!).

This was quite a quick rave review, but yes, this is activist exhibitions done right, in my opinion. Have you been to the exhibition? Let me know what you think! Any other activist exhibitions you recommend?

Find more of Izzy's writing at The Quirky Environmentalist.

During 2019 we spent time developing the skills programme at St Fagans, working with partners and communities to create opportunities for adult learning and skills development, linked to our work under the Fusion Initiative and the Well-Being of Future Generations Act. To mark the launch of the new section of our Learning website for Community Learning here’s an update on what’s been achieved so far and what’s to come in 2020.

Community Learning and Skills Development:

We have been working with organisations such as the Wallich, Hafal, Crisis and Oasis Cardiff to collaboratively establish craft skills taster sessions with their participants. Workshops including leather and copper work have inspired the participants to use the museum’s collections as inspiration, whilst bringing their own cultural experiences with them to each session. 

People who have taken part have shared their experiences and feedback with us. Here are some of the highlights:

“Immersing, interesting, rewarding”

“It’s something that I’ve never done before so I found leather work really interesting and relaxing.”

So far 243 people have been taken part in sessions from April and December 2019, with further sessions planned in 2020.

Widening Accesses Partnerships:

We have been collaborating with Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Widening Access department to bring accessible learning programmes to the museum, using the museum’s collections to enhance and deepen the learning potential. In 2019 two creative writing courses and one in complimentary therapy were delivered at St Fagans. A second Complimentary Therapy course is currently running and further courses are planned for later this year.

Learner feedback highlights:

“The course has been a good confidence booster and showed me where I would like to progress.”

“Really enjoyed the course, well tutored, supportive environment.”

Language Skills:

Creating opportunities for people to learn and develop their language skills forms an important element of the skills development programme. In 2019 St Fagans built on its partnership with Cardiff University School of Welsh, who delivered a 20 week Entry 1 course (January to July 2019). Many of the learners went on to enrol on the Entry 2 Course which started in September 2019. A blended Entry 1 and 2 course also started in September 2019, with a new Entry 1 course starting this January.   

ESOL Learners are benefitting from the St Fagans ESOL learning resources, developed collaboratively with Cardiff and the Vale College (CAVC), proving opportunities for them to use the museum as a safe space for learning, sharing their culture and developing their knowledge and understanding of Welsh cultural heritage. Groups have been visiting from colleges such as CAVC and the resources are being regularly downloaded from the Museum’s website – in total 174 downloads between May and December 2019.

This year we are celebrating this success and building on it by launching the new Community Learning section of our website. Head over to have a look and learn more about how to take part and book a visit.

Thanks to all the participants, partner organisations and the team at St Fagans for everything that’s been achieved so far.

Hello Bulb Buddies,

I’ve heard that many of you are expecting your plants to flower soon. Well done for looking after your plants so well. I’m looking forward to seeing photos of your flowers so please share these with me.

Why not have a go at drawing botanical illustrations of your plants? There are lots of different examples of drawings like these on the Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales website if you want ideas. I’ve added an example of a botanical drawing from the museum’s collection on the right, does this look like your plant?

Can you name the different parts of your plant? Do you know what the anther and the sepal are? Drawing and labeling your plants is a lovely way to look at them in more detail. Please share your artwork with me if you do this.

Remember to look at the ‘Keeping Flower Records’ resource on the website. This shows how to tell when your plant has fully opened and how to measure your plants height. These records are important for our study, as we will look at the average flowering dates and compare these with previous years.

It will be interesting to see whether our plants flower early this year. The MET Office reported that January 2020 was the 6^th warmest January since 1884, with lower than average frosts for the time of year. Do you think this will have affected our plants growth?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments section when you enter your weather data Bulb Buddies.

Keep up the good work!

Professor Plant