The next time you visit our gardens, keep an eye out for the new signs to be found throughout the site.

We've added these signs to explain more about what can be seen in and from the gardens, the plant species growing there, and the history of the museum and gardens.

Here's a short tour of just some of the information panels you'll see.

This sign on the bandstand terrace which has a wonderful view of London, describes the buildings that can be seen.

This sign tells the story of the mosaic mural by Robert Anning Bell on the museum's frontage.

Here is a sign at the entrance to the Medicinal Garden. Similar signs will be found at the Dye Garden, Food Garden and Material Gardens, as well as panels throughout the display gardens to explain the plants growing there.

This sign explains the musical instruments which you can play in our new Sound Garden.

And, last but not least, an introduction to the museum and gardens, explaining Frederick Horniman's wonderful gift to the people of London.

We've started to plant our dye gardens plants. There are very few dye gardens planted in the UK so we're really excited to be creating one here at the Horniman.

Within the garden, there will be pockets of plants which produce particular colours (blues, reds, yellows, browns / blacks).

These three plants - Canadian Goldenrod, Henna and Indigo - produce yellow, red and blue dyes. The garden will make links to objects in our collection, explaining how dyes such as these can be used. 

Ewen works in our Learning Department - he tells us about one of his favourite objects - the glass harmonica.

Is this a favourite instrument of yours?

Yes, it’s called the armonica. Although sometimes it’s called the glass harmonica, it has various other names.

Is that a wheel on the end?

It is quite an unusual instrument because you might look at it and think what an interesting contraption. You might wonder what it does, and is it something to do with doing the washing or laundry. You wouldn’t know immediately what it was.

There is a wheel on the end and there is a pedal at the bottom, so you sit and peddle and the wheel turns which turns the glass bowls. It is similar to when people play glasses with a wet finger, which when you move your finger around the glass it makes it sing. That is basically what you are doing here, but it was evolved into a mechanism to be able to do it.

Each bowl is tuned to a different note and that is how you can play music and because of the way it is laid out you can use all 10 fingers in the way that you would on a piano. You can play harmonies and melodies on it.

This actual set up was invented by Benjamin Franklin. What particularly interests me is that it was particularly popular in the late 18^th century and into the 19^th century and was used in music by Beethoven and Mozart. Although often they would end up re-transcribing the music for another instrument because the armonica moved largely out of fashion partly because the sound they make is quite quiet and it wouldn’t really carry over a full orchestra.

However, they have come back into fashion over the past 20 or 30 years, so there are a lot of contemporary people like Daman Albarn and Tom Waits who have been using them in music.

Have you ever played one?

No, I’d love to. If I had to pick an object that I would like to have, this would be one. I don’t think they are particularly easy to get hold of and they are probably very expensive. What I like about it, as well as being a really unusual instrument, is the sound that it makes. It is incredibly spooky, it makes a kind of eerie, wailing sound.

There was a rumour (and this is one of the reasons they may have gone out of fashion) that the sound would drive people mad; both the listeners and the musicians’ nervous systems would be affected.  It is something to do with the specific frequency of the sound which is a frequency that is very hard for the human ear to process and pin point. It makes you feel disconcerted. I suppose is a bit like the sound of a musical saw or theramin.

It was used by Donizetti in an opera he wrote called Lucia di Lammermoor to accompany the heroin’s mad scene. I am fascinated by the concept that there an instrument that scared people and made them feel unnerved.

Our glass armonica is featured in a BBC radio programme featuring Evelyn Glennie. It is broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Saturday, 28 April at 12.15pm. Full details here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01gvqsb

Sarah worked in our press office - we asked her to tell us about her favourite objects in the Museum. She chose two - a tenrec, and an 'ugly mask'.

Why do you like this animal?

I know very little about this animal but I am sort of obsessed with its facial expression, it almost looks like its jaws been dislocated. I can’t quite believe this actually happens. I think it is the taxidermist using a bit of artistic license. He probably thought, "I’m going to make this look fiercesome". It’s probably a very sweet little vegetarian animal.

I love its stance, it sort of looks like its looks like it is trying to stand up to something. Its golden fur is quite attractive, and its little ears, little beady eyes, are quite cute, but its face has been contorted into a snarl.

How did you come to notice it? 

I am quite lucky because I have to supervise film crews and photo shoots so I spend quite a lot of time in the galleries waiting for things to happen and that gives me a chance to notice things.

What's the next object you've chosen?

There are 3 ‘ugly masks’ in the centenary gallery, but the one I really like is the one that’s made out of a piece of tree bark but it’s also got a kind of knot of a small branch coming out of it. (On the left of this picture above.)

What I really like about it, is the way the makers have used all the natural properties of the materials, so the crumply surface of the tree bark is used to make this really horrible pocked marked skin. The knot is used to make a wonky nose. It looks slightly charred, I don’t know if they’ve used something to burn the marks in. I really admire it as a piece of craftsmanship. I love the way the mouth looks toothless, it has almost a gurning expression.

Does it remind you of anything?

It looks like some of the illustrations you get in children’s books; it’s got a very fairy tale quality definitely, you can imagine trees that get up and walk and talk.

Do you know where it is from and what it was used for?

It’s from the Tyrol used as part of a folk ceremony, a masquerade with ugly masks and beautiful masks to chase the winter away.

Our new exhibition - The Body Adorned: Dressing London - opened on Saturday.

Here's a numerical look at the exhibition:

• 1216 days since the exhibition was first proposed (3 years, 4 months - 40 months)
• 365 objects in the exhibition
• 373 years, duration of the Song Dynasty (from 906 - 1279 AD). The oldest (known) object in the exhibition dates from this period.
• 289 days the exhibition will be open for, until 6 January 2012
• 103 urban portraits taken by the project participants
• 77 young people involved in the project
• 68 charms on the Malian charm garment in the exhibition
  
  
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• 58 people in the exhibition's film installation by The Light Surgeons
• 54 materials in the exhibition - for example, bamboo, feather, wood, gold, velvet
• 53 countries where objects are in the exhibition come from
• 48 cigarette cards
• 27 prints
• 22cm - length of the exhibition's smallest object - a brooch
  
  
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• 21 instruments relating to tattooing
• 15 combs
• 5 objects are already on display in Musuem - all the others come from our stored collections.
• 4 American states are represented in the exhibition: Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Pennsylvania
• 4 areas of London in which the film installation was made: Brick Lane, Chelsea, The City, Peckham
• 1 kilt
• 1 wig
• 1 walking stick

The launch for our new exhibition - The Body Adorned: Dressing London - took place last night with special guest Vivienne Westwood. Here are tweets and photos from the night.

As part of our STEM London East activity, we celebrated Science Week here with secondary schools across London East. Key Stage 3 pupils went behind the scenes of the Natural History Gallery and the Aquarium to see science in action.

Our keepers, Paolo, James and Jamie, entertained and amazed students with stories of their travels in exotic places, and fascinating insights into their research. 

During the visit to the Aquarium with James, students were in awe of the aquarium creatures, especially the mysterious poisonous cuddle fish that lurks behind the tanks.

The highlight for many was meeting a real-life palaeontologist and handling some of our impressive fossil collection.

Students also participated in a practical activity - dissecting owl puke! Every day, Barn Owls produce pellets filled with fur and bone - leftovers from last night’s dinner. After much poking and prodding, skulls and skeletons of rodents and shrews were found. One student discovered over 70 bones!

Students and teachers alike had a fantastic time and the week was a great success! A big thank you to Paolo, James, Jamie and Emily for volunteering their time to help create such an exciting week!

We recently finished our annual animal stock take or census to check how many creatures we have at present in the aquarium, and to check that our stock records match what is out there in reality. This is very important to run the aquarium, and we are obliged to do this census annually as terms of our zoo license.

If you are wondering how we count all these animals, it all depends on the animal!

It's a piece of cake to count creatures such as starfish and sea urchins because they stay still. It's also pretty easy to count the larger individual animals like the dogfish and frogs.

But what about the small fast moving fish? For these we use a bit of helpful modern technology - a digital camera. This allows us to take a picture of the display and then use that as a reference to count everything later in the office.

We're continuing the planting for our new display gardens, spending a lot of last week on fruit trees.

We're planting apple trees which will be trained to grow horizontally and low down, so they'll act like a border to an area with more fruit trees, such as pear, cherry, quince and fig trees.

We're also planting soft fruits, including local species like blackberries and those from further away such as Japanese wineberry.

In our nursery, a number of seedlings are germinating, such as these aubergines, cauliflower and cabbages.

We're also experimenting with growing some grow exotic and unusual species such as goji berries, passion fruit, honey berry and Chilean guava. In the nursery, we're trying to grow indigo. As you can see, it's not sprouting very well so far. These species don't normally thrive in our climate, so we'll see how well they grow, and let you know.

Laura worked as one of our visitor assistants until last weekend - to say farewall, we asked her to tell us about her favourite object in the Museum: the Benin bronzes in African Worlds.

What is about them that attracts you to these objects?

I am a sculptor, so I like the process of things, and it is interesting to see how they’ve been made. I did bronze sculptures myself when was been studying. It’s interesting to see a more original, traditional way of making them, like putting it in the earth, in the ground.

I did it in foundry, but this how they were originally made. I like that I can see the hands, I can see the journey of the sculptor making it, which is interesting. You can see how it’s been done in the piece. I see where things went wrong, or what happened - if there is a crack and why it happened. You can see the marks of the mould; you can see the tools he used. That is what is interesting for me.

So you like the fact that you can see the process and the craft?

I don’t know if I like the pieces physically, I think I like more what they mean more than how they look visually. I like the craft. I like the fact that this craft is being taught from family to family. It is beautiful that it hasn’t died out. There are people who are still making bronze sculptures.

In the modern art world, particularly, craftsmanship is disappearing and people are tending to do less making and do more talking. I find that interesting because you don’t see people making bronze sculptures in art colleges today in the UK, it’s not that common.

Why do you think that is?

I think it is just the way the modern art is gong – there is more video, media and things that are easy to make, people don’t have space and it is more expensive. Modelling is disappearing, like proper drawing or proper painting. It is kind of changing into something else, which is also interesting.