I hope you all had a lovely break over Christmas and New Year. Thank you to everyone who has sent weather data in. I'm enjoying hearing how your plants are doing and what the weather is like where you are! Remember, there are schools taking part from all over the UK. You can use the website to compare your results with schools in other countries. In the report at the end of the project we will compare the weather and flowering dates for Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Which country do you think will be warmer and which do you think will have the most rain?

Lots of schools have reported that their bulbs have started to grow. Can you tell which of the plants are daffodil and which are crocus? The pictures on the right might help you to identify your plants. The pictures show plants on the same day, in the same park, but growing in different places. Some of the plants have grown less than others. Why do you think this is? The descriptions with the photos might help you to think of reasons why the plants are developing differently.

I look forward to your next data entries and comments. Remember, you can share photos by email and over Twitter.

Keep up the good work Bulb Buddies,

Professor Plant

Your Comments

Weather

Thank you for your weather updates Bulb Buddies.

Ysbyty Ifan: Wythnos gyntaf yn ol yn yr ysgol ac mae'n eithaf braf. Pawb yn hapus ar ol chwarae efo teganau newydd Sion Corn!

Ysgol Beulah: Blwyddyn newydd dda! Rydyn ni wedi cael wythnos sych.

Kirkby La Thorpe Cof E Primary Academy: colder week, quite dull and damp atmosphere (coats on at playtime!) but very little rain , nearly snow like on Wednesday as attempted to rain , small brief flurry in the cold wind. ground still moist , a few weeds but no flowers emerging yet! although daffodils available in shops.

Ochiltree Primary School: We have had a wet week this week.

Darran Park Primary: The temperature is lower this week and there hasn't been so much rain.

Hudson Road Primary School: It has been so cold this week and very windy

Hudson Road Primary School: It has rained this week everyday

Project

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda – Happy New Year to you all Bulb Buddies.

Ysgol Bro Pedr: Blwyddyn Newydd Dda - Happy New Year

Shirenewton Primary School: Nadolig Llawen a blwyddyn Newydd dda

Ysbyty Ifan: Nadolig llawen a blwyddyn newydd dda a diolch yn fawr am y cerdyn.

Plants

Thank you for the updates on your plants Bulb Buddies. I’m excited to hear that lots of plants have started to grow.

Carnbroe Primary School: Happy New Year Professor Plant we have been checking our bulbs this week and they look well but no flowers. We have had not much rain and it is been mild.

Ysgol Casmael: Some of our bulbs have shoots starting to peep through.

Ysgol Nantymoel: Some of our plants are starting to grow. Please help we have made a mistake with our records before Christmas and still can't correct them.

Dalreoch Primary School: Our bulbs in the ground have started to show through. They are about 3cm tall.

Hendredenny Park Primary: Some bulbs are starting to show shoots

Steelstown Primary School: This week all of the bulbs have started to grow. Everyone is super excited and can't wait until April when all of them should be grown!

Steelstown Primary School: When we are taking the temperature and rainfall we have noticed that the bulbs are starting to grow it is very exciting. We cannot wait until they have fully grown into flowers

St Julian's Primary School: Lots of daffodils have started to grow now.

A glimpse at the large display case situated to far-left hand side of the Clore Discovery Centre in National Museum Cardiff reveals a visual array of different types of modern and historic decorative plates, teapots, as well as figurines. These are both taxidermy and ceramic objects, some brightly glazed and others radiating the luminescence of the stone they were crafted from. The eye can rest upon, or circle around, such shapes as a smoothly curved oxen made from Chinese jade, an earthenware Staffordshire leopard and even a taxidermy echidna, an animal that belongs to the Monotreme order of egg-laying mammals.

Elsewhere in the cabinet, the eye can be drawn to ceramic animals like the brightly marked Figure of a Leopard, produced between 1865 and 1875 by the renowned Wedgwood pottery factory. As its attractive form indicates, Wedgwood’s animal figures were popular by the 1850s and affordable to a public who could display them as they were modelled in a way that allowed them to sit on a mantel piece.

Earlier examples of Wedgwood’s engagement with animal motifs can also be viewed in the Teapot with Tiger Print, produced between 1812 and 1815, and John Walton’s Lamb-Figure Group, made between 1820 and 1830. This figure group, of an ewe and her lamb sitting amongst a mound of foliage called a bocage, has a purpose that can be grasped by viewing its flat back and hollowed-out tree trunk. This physical shape would have enabled it to have been used as a spill vase – that could take a flame from fire to a light – and which would normally sit on a narrow ledge.

Additionally, the Clore Discovery Centre holds handling drawers containing teapots, as well as ceramic fragments, such as roughly-textured earthenware, accompanied by bilingual guide books to aid sensory interpretation. These objects are just a small fraction of National Museum Cardiff’s wonderful collection of ceramics to look out for during a visit so please come and explore!

The National Waterfront Museum is one of the partners in the Angelshark Project, which aims to gather information, both current and historic, about this protected species, one of the rarest sharks in the world. Prior to a roadshow at the Museum on 15 and 16 February, Jake Davies, from the Zoological Society of London, shares his work.

Angels of Wales - How can you help?

Angel Shark Project: Wales is a pioneering new project with an aim to better understand and safeguard the Angelshark (Squatina squatina) in Wales through fisher-participation, heritage and citizen-science.

We are working with Amgueddfa Cymru and alongside fishers and coastal communities in Wales to better understand the Angelshark through gathering historic and current information about its life off the Welsh coast.

Angelsharks are large, flat-bodied sharks can reach 2.4m in length. Also known as monkfish or angel fish, they are sometimes mistaken for a ray or misrecorded as anglerfish. Angelsharks feed on a range of fish, crustaceans and molluscs and have an important role in maintaining a balanced marine ecosystem.

They are not threatening to humans, living mainly on sand or mud at the bottom of the sea, lying in wait to ambush unsuspecting prey.

Angelsharks are protected under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

It is illegal to intentionally disturb, target, injure or kill Angelsharks within 12 nautical miles of Welsh and English coastlines.

The four major areas of the Angelshark Project are:

1. Understand status and ecology of Angelsharks in Wales
2. Fishers are stewards of Angelshark conservation
3. Communities help unlock Angelshark heritage to share across the generations.
4. Develop Wales’s Angelshark Action Plan to identify key steps to secure their future

As part of the historical research, Angel Shark Project: Wales will be running the Angelshark History Roadshow from January to March 2019 in five of the project’s focal regions: North Anglesey, the Llŷn Peninsula, Porthmadog to Aberarth, Fishguard to Milford Haven and Swansea to Porthcawl (though we also welcome information from across Wales). The free events provide the opportunity to bring your memories, photos or stories of Angelsharks (or any other interesting shark, skate or ray species off the Welsh Coast) and see how they help build our understanding of Wales’s rich maritime landscape. The roadshows will also be a good opportunity to meet the team and find out more about the project. The roadshow dates are:

Following the roadshows, we will be recruiting and training citizen scientists to continue the historical research by scouring local libraries, archives, historic magazines and museums. Information captured through this research will be digitalised and displayed in collaboration with Peoples Collection Wales and provided to the next generation via a History of Angels iBook.

Those who are interested in being part of the project but unable to attend the roadshows and would like to share memories or photographs of Angelsharks can get in touch at angelsharks@zsl.org to help save one of the rarest sharks in the world. You can report personal sightings and accidental captures of Angelsharks to the sightings webpage http://angelsharknetwork.com/#map or email angelsharks@zsl.org.

Angel Shark Project: Wales is led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Natural Resources Wales (NRW), funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Welsh Government.

Hope that you have been following our Natural Science #MuseumAdvent Calendar

Our curators and scientists in the Natural Science Department at National Museum Cardiff have been choosing their favourite objects from the collections, to place behind the doors of our very own museum advent calendar. As it is Christmas Eve, all of the doors are now open and we wanted to share with you all of the wonderful 24 objects chosen, and the staff who have helped created it. 

Why not have a look back through all of the doors and find out about these amazing objects and specimens within Amgueddfa Cymru collections.

Hi Bulb Buddies,

Thank you for all of your hard work collecting weather data over the last few weeks. The next week for weather records will be 7-11 January. When entering data to the website please enter 'no record' for the dates that you weren't in school to take readings.

There's no need to take your pots home with you over Christmas. So long as they are in a safe place in the school yard where they are unlikely to get blown over by the wind, they will be fine. The bulbs are insulated by the soil and can withstand the winter weather.

The weather has been mild in many places again this autumn/ winter, and it will be interesting to see how this effects our plants.

Have a lovely break Bulb Buddies.

Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year from

Professor Plant & Baby Bulb

Comments from weather entries:

Comments about the project

Stanford in the Vale Primary School: Hi, the week is wrong but it wouldn't show this week on the select a week list. Been cold and rainy this week. Speak to you next week!! R. Professor Plant: Thank you for updating me R. I’ll look into why this week wasn’t showing. Keep up the good work.

Good Shepherd Primary and Nursery School: C.:it was very fun. R.:I think it was very intresting. Professor Plant: Lovely to hear from you buddies, and I’m glad you’re enjoying the project!

Steelstown Primary School:  From reading the data this week we think that it is raining a lot more but also the temperature is rising. We can't wait for next week. We love doing this project. Every week the results are different and we are excited to continue doing it and colleting the data for the weather. Professr Plant: Thanks bulb buddies, have you looked at data from previous years and from different schools? You can do this on the web site and I think you’d find it interesting!

Ysgol Bro Pedr: Our bulbs are feeling a bit cold this week. Thank you very much For the Christmas Card. Professor Plant: It is getting colder, but the bulbs will hopefully stay well insulated and cosy in the soil! I’m glad your card arrived, merry Christmas bulb buddies.

Comments about your bulbs

Ysgol Gymraeg Dewi Sant (Llanelli): Mae rhai o'r bylbiau yn dechrau egino. Athro’r Ardd: Newyddion gwych cyfeillion, hoffwn weld lluniau!

Henllys CIW Primary: on Tuesday actual rainfall was o.5mm We have spotted a small shoot coming from one of the pots a - daffodil in R.'s pot Also, the coconut husk pot has surprised us as the daffodil shoot has sprung up this week it is now showing quite a bit and the crocus shoot is poking up from the soil. Professor Plant: How exciting bulb buddies, I’d love to see photos if you are able to take and share these? Keep up the good work.

Carnbroe Primary School: Dear Professor Plant and Baby Bulb it has been very cold this week and the soil in our plant pots are frozen and icy. Our bulbs are doing well and they are really healthy. Professor Plant: Well done for looking after your plants bulb buddies, I’m glad to hear that they are doing well. Thank you for your observations and for providing an insight into the weather conditions in your area.

Good Shepherd Primary and Nursery School: we like seeing the plants grow. Professor Plant: Me too bulb buddies! 

Comments about the weather:

YGG Tonyrefail: Mae hi wedi bod yn wythnos sych ac oer. Diolch am eich cerdyn Nadolig Athro'r Ardd a Bylb Bychan. Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd dda i chi gyd yn yr Amgueddfa. Welwn ni chi yn 2019!! Athro’r Ardd: Diolch cyfeillion y gwanwyn, Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda i bawb yn Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Tonyrefail hefyd!

Our Lady of Peace Primary School: Another normal cold week well see you after Christmas break. Professor Plant: See you after Christmas bulb buddies.

Holy Cross Girls' Primary Schoo: We were out on a school trip on Wednesday so didn't have the opportunity to collect the data. Professor Plant: Thank you for letting me know bulb buddies. I hope you had a good trip!

Tonyrefail Community School: Our rain gauge kept falling over this week so we have no record on Wednesday. Professor Plant: Thank you for letting me know bulb buddies!

Ysgol Nantymoel: We have inputted the wrong data for week commencing 12.05.18 how can we correct it? Professor Plant: Hi bulb buddies, you should be able to re-enter data for previous weeks. When you do this the most recent data entered for a given week shows on the graph. If this isn’t working please email me and I’ll update your data for you.

Stanford in the Vale Primary School: Quite cold this week defenetly today. It was frozen this morning! Today the temperature has slipped down a lot! The week was wrong again because it wouldn't let us choose the right week!! Speak to you next year-2019!! R. Professor Plant: Thanks for the update R. You are doing a fantastic job. I’ll look into the issue with the dates and will fix it for when you start back!

Chorley St James Primary School: This week it has been very dry and very gloomy, but some parts of the day it has been sunny. Professor Plant: Thank you for the weather observations bulb buddy.