A Snowdrop Celebration will herald the reopening of the Museum in the Park in Stroud on Saturday and Sunday, January 25-26.

Due to the continued success of the annual event, visitors are once again invited to meet the museum's gardeners, learn about the pioneering Giant Snowdrop Company of Hyde, buy snowdrops from Old Court Nurseries, and enjoy soup, tea, and cake in Miss Daisy's pop-up café in the Walled Garden Pavilion.

Families can follow a Snowdrop Fairy I Spy trail and take part in snowdrop-themed craft activities. The museum shop will have a special 10% discount including snowdrop themed products.

Cllr Martin Brown, chair of Stroud District Council community services & licensing committee, said: "The annual snowdrop celebration has become a popular event for people of all ages.

"Our Council Plan recognises the importance of ensuring everyone has access to good quality leisure opportunities, and to ensuring the museum remains at the heart of the wider community."

The museum owns more than 60,000 items which have a local connection, about 4,000 of which are on display, and closes for six weeks during December and January to deep clean and carry out essential maintenance of the exhibits and building.

Coming up at The Museum in the Park:

• Growing Places Exhibition, Saturday, January 25 - Sunday, February 23. This exhibition is the culmination of a ten-month local arts project which has explored food, farming, and the community through a broad range of workshops around Stroud, constructions, walks, composting and a series of artists resident in a gingerbread house. Work will be on display by those artists and by many members of the community groups who have been spending time in nature on the farms and in the woodlands around Stroud. Growing Places project is supported by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) through the Farming in Protected Landscapes scheme. Facilitated by artist group Walking the Land. Free.
• Snowdrop talk with Helen Picton: Snowdrops at Old Court Nurseries. Sunday, January 26, 11.30am-12.30pm. £7; booking required.
• Poetry Evening presented by Yew Tree Press. Wednesday, February 5, 7.30pm-9.30pm. Free; no need to book (please bring a torch).
• Art History Talks with Kirsty Hartsiosis. Three talks on February 7, March 7 and April 11, 10.30am. Early bird ticket £12 or £7 per talk; booking required.
• Eco printing workshop with Ruth Illingworth, Saturday, February 8, 1.30pm-4pm. £10; booking required.
• Talk: Secret Stroud with David Elder. Thursday, February 13, 2pm - 3pm. £5; booking required.
• Green Pledge Project Exhibition, Saturday, February 15 - Friday, February 21.
• Half-term workshop: Landscape in a Box, Tuesday, February 18, 10am-11.30am. For children aged 7-14 and accompanying adults. Free; booking required.
• Stroud Wassail, Saturday, February 22, 1.30pm - 3.30pm. Free; donations welcome.

More information about all the events can be found on the museum's website and by signing up to the free-of-charge membership programme.

The Museum in the Park, managed by Stroud District Council in collaboration with the Stroud District (Cowle) Museum Trust, is situated in a Grade II listed 17th Century former wool merchant's house.

The museum tells the extraordinary and diverse history of Stroud district and has over 4,000 objects and artefacts on display - from dinosaur bones to one of the world's first lawnmowers.