Blog: Learning

National Poetry Day 2009 at Big Pit

2 November 2009

On National Poetry Day in October 2009, Big Pit’s poet-in-residence Mike Jenkins encouraged visitors to contribute to a ‘BIG Big Pit poem’. The theme of National Poetry Day was ‘Heroes and Heroines,’ and contributors wrote about the heroic people who worked in difficult conditions and jobs in coal mines.

Contributions came from 3 schools: Goetre Junior School, Merthyr, Queen Street Primary School, Abertillery and Oldbury Wells High School in Shropshire. Mike awarded a signed copy of his children’s poetry book ‘Poems for Underage Thinkers’ to the junior classes for their inspired efforts.

Adult poets were:

Mike Tanner from Blaenavon, Justin Hamilton from Kilbirnie, Derek Edmondson from Woodford, and Mr and Mrs Gilbert from Little Witcombe, as well as Big Pit staff.

Find out more about Mike’s award-winning poetry and prose by visiting his website: www.mikejenkins.net.

BIG BIG PIT POEM
A communal poem created at Big Pit on National Poetry Day 2009

Underground what will we see?
Underground is dangerous
Ponies hauled dram after dram 
Thrusters and hurriers pushing tram after tram 
Pickers hitting as hard as they can 
Children crying and crying.
The canary was a warning.
Lots of water on the ground
It was leaking into the pit 
Getting deeper and deeper.
It was dark like night when the lights went out,
It was scary. Slippery like water.
The cage went fast then slow. 
Down the pit there were tracks.
Struggling by the light of lamps. 
The axes and sledgehammers were dirty as muddy water.
Some were very old.

The men were heroes because they worked twelve hard hours.
The fireman who risked himself to save his workmate’s face,
After a fall, threw himself down to protect his friend.
The horses were heroes because they saved people.
Masks protected the ponies’ faces, some of the ponies died.
Seventy two worked down the mine.
Many of them became blind.
The miner had to pull the drams. 
The girls were heroines because they helped.
Dad and son worked side by side 
Deprived of sunlight from day to day.
Some men died.
Some men cried. 
Coughing up black dust 
Working like navvies from dawn till dusk.
Mothers sad when there was an explosion.
A message home when there’s no hope left
Scratched into a bottle.
Day and night death always occurred.

But everyone pulled together
Washing away the day’s toil. 
A hot bath, joke and a laugh.
To the hole in the wall, have a fag
Desperate for that first drag.

Figures hunched against the driving rain
Thirsting for the hoppy nectar 
To soothe away the pain.

Autumn adventure

Gareth Bonello, 17 September 2009

Firstly, apologies for my extended absence from these pages. I don’t have an excuse other than the summer activities kept me very busy this year! However, I find myself in a bit of a calm period at the moment so I thought I’d update you on what’s coming up over the next few months.

The autumn is fast approaching and the evidence is all around St Fagans. A quick walk about the site reveals bursts of bright red berries on hawthorn bushes and rowan trees and delicate highlights of yellow and orange edging into the green leaves of the beech woodland. A walk in the woods is accompanied by the steady sound of beech mast dropping with the breeze. The horse chestnuts have already begun to fall too, and the acorns and sweet chestnuts look like they won’t be long to follow.

In October activities will focus on this season of change. For Seed Gathering Sunday we will be looking at the variety of tactics trees use to disperse their seed during an enjoyable walk about the grounds.

On October the 24th there’s a real treat in store as the Ty Gwyrdd kitchen will be in action for the first time in years to demonstrate some traditional apple recipes.

The apple theme continues in the Ty Gwyrdd on the 25th of October where you can take part in Feed the Birds Day with the RSPB, and learn how to use apples to make great bird feeders.

During October half term we will be running Autumn Feast activities looking at traditional foods grown in the autumn as well as the wild food that grows in our woods, fields and hedges.

And right at the end of November I will be running activities alongside the RSPB that look at ways of telling trees apart and the importance of trees for wildlife. If that appeals to you why not join us on the 5th of December when we'll be working with the BBC to try and break the world record for the most amount of trees planted in one hour!

So I hope to see you at an event this autumn, and in the meantime get out there and enjoy the sunshine!

Muddy knees, bumblebees and anemones!

Gareth Bonello, 9 April 2009

Wood Anemones at St Fagans

After a prolonged and cold winter I am sure that many of you are as relieved as I am that spring is finally here! Although it is now the start of April, the early signs of spring have been with us for a while. This March was the driest in Wales since 2002 and almost everywhere in the UK had higher than average levels of sunshine. This resulted in an explosion of colour as the woods have blossomed with flowers such as lesser celandines, wood anemones and primroses. Bumblebees too have woken up from their winter sleep and emerged from burrows below ground to begin collecting pollen and nectar to feed the colony.

Throughout March we ran activities at St Fagans encouraging you to get involved in bee conservation. Over 400 visitors planted native British wildflowers to attract bees and butterflies and I am happy to report that they are doing very well! If you want to know more about bee conservation why not visit the Save Our Bees website?

A Song Thrush sits on her nest safely hidden in a Holly bush

A quick trip down to the local park or wood will tell you that the birds are in full swing at the moment. Our songbirds are all pairing up and nesting at this time of year. Most have struggled through the harsh British winter but not all. Chiffchaff arrive on our shores in early March from Southern Europe and North Africa. Their distinctive two-note 'chiff-chaff' call can be heard echoing around woodlands, parks and gardens as males compete for females and territory. Next time you're out and about why not see if you can hear one or why not come along to our Dawn Chorus Walk on May the 3rd?

 

A bright carpet of Wood Anemones on the forest floor

We have plenty of activities coming up this spring, with Compost Awareness Week taking centre stage in early May and signs of spring during the May half term. Visit the events page for more details. In the meantime feel free to let me know what spring wonders you've seen recently in the comments box below - any bluebells yet?

Flower Picture Diary

Danielle Cowell, 26 March 2009

Each week I will be uploading new pictures of my plants - as they grow. Please e-mail your own plant pictures to me.

Weekly updates:

23/03/09 Throughout this week all of my daffodils have opened. They are all standing proudly in my garden, the tallest measures 35cms in height. Many more of you have reported your daffodil flowers opening this week and finally your crocuses have opened too! See the and to compare other schools with your own. This is the last week for recording temperatures and rainfall - so please send in all your records before the Easter holidays then I will send you your certificates on the 5th of April.

17/03/09 My 1st daffodil opened today!

13/03/09 This week my daffodils have grown lots. I'm sure they will flower over this weekend! So far, the findings this year are very interesting. All schools are reporting that daffodils are coming before the crocus - which is very unusual and has not happened before in this study! Also, all our flowers seem to be around three weeks later than usual, which has also been reported by the Really Welsh farmers! But why?...

The cold weather this winter has meant that our bulbs were exposed to frost. Frost can slow down a flower's development or even damage a flower and prevent it from flowering. Bulbs in pots are particularly vulnerable.

But why did most of the crocus come later than the daffodil? In short, the frost had a more damaging affect on the crocus because the bulbs are smaller and not so tough. The frost also came at a bad time for the crocus when it was almost ready to flower.

04/03/09 Lots of my crocus flowers have appeared and my daffodils are beggining to shoot up too. I took some close-ups of the crocus flowers today because they look so pretty - covered in dew drops.

I've studied the average flowering dates for this year and see that in many schools it is the daffodils that have opened 1st. The crocus have only opened in two places - my garden and Burton School. Normally, it is the crocus that open 1st? Take a look at the and for yourself.

23/02/09 Today, my 1st crocus flower opened! Lots of other flowers have shot up too - but only one has actually opened. In the sunlight you can see through the petals to see the orange anthers inside. My daffodils have grown quite a lot this week, the tallest is now 18cms tall. See the - some daffodils have opened at Oakfield Primary School in Cardiff too! Have any of your flowers opened yet?

19/02/09 Hi Bulb buddies! Welcome back from your half term break. In my garden, things have really started to grow. What was a tiny green bud, has transformed into a beautiful purple flower. It's still not open yet - when it looks like this you should send your flowering date to the immmediately. Then a flower symbol will appear above your school on the and the average flowering date for your school will appear on the .

 

In , in Pembrokeshire one of their daffodils has already opened - unsually before the crocus. I'm going to be watching my Crocus everyday now so i can catch the flowering - I hope you can do the same!

10/02/09 The shoots are now 2-3cm tall. This is small for this time of year - because we have had such a cold spring. At this time last year the crocus flowers had already opened and the daffodils were 11cms tall!

Which shoot is which? The daffodil shoots have smooth curved, light green tips. They are much broader than the crocus tips. The crocus shoots have narrow pointed shoots that normally appear in clusters of five. They have dark green edges - making them look slightly stripey.

03/02/09 Snow everywhere today, even a bit in Cardiff! The shoots haven't grown much this week and now they are hidden under a blanket of snow.

Come back next week to see how much the plants grow.

Professor Plant

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