Richard Jefferies Museum
LightNews LightNews
banner
rjmuseum.bsky.social
Richard Jefferies Museum
@rjmuseum.bsky.social
60 followers 84 following 240 posts
Small community-run museum and gardens at the birthplace of Victorian naturalist and author Richard Jefferies in Swindon, Wiltshire.

"The lover of nature has the highest art in his soul."

Official Bluesky account from the Richard Jefferies Museum, run by
Posts Replies Media Videos
rjmuseum.bsky.social
Just a quick photo update on our community garden / allotments - our volunteers are getting on with it now that the growing season is over, but there is still lots to do!

#garden #CommunityGarden #volunteers #VolunteersRock #community #Swindon
The original, cobbled path in the community garden has now been largely uncovered, it enabled access to the cowshed that once stood here. Three walls of the cowshed are now part of the site's walls. The community garden's functional low vegetable beds, also pictured here, are beginning to be dismantled in preparation for the overhaul. Soil is piled up on some plastic sheeting, next to the outbuildings that back onto the community garden. There were two small greenhouses on site. One currently lies in pieces, a casualty of recent wet and windy days. They were both in the process of being dismantled in favour of a larger greenhouse, which has been donated, to be featured at a later date.
December 8, 2025 at 11:40 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
It's #WorldSoilDay

"The earth has a way of absorbing things that are placed upon it, of drawing from them their stiff individuality of newness, and throwing over them something of her own antiquity."
The Life of the Fields

#nature #soil
Potatoes unearthed by a gardening volunteer in the summer of 2022.
December 5, 2025 at 6:15 PM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
Gather with the #Swindon community as the winter chill arrives...

Our Tree Day party is THIS WEEKEND!

Join us between 1 and 3pm to give thanks to our trees for a good year, and Somerset-based band HUSHWING will provide the music.

This event is free and open to everyone. Please spread the word!
The cherry plum, which serves as the great umbrella enclosing our den in its embrace, sheds its leaves in October 2025.
December 4, 2025 at 11:50 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
"The great painter, Autumn, has just touched with the tip of his brush a branch of the beech-tree, here and there leaving an orange spot, and the green acorns are tinged with a faint yellow."
The Hills and the Vale

#trees #nature #Swindon
Looking up into the canopy of the great big copper beech in the museum garden, where the leaves are yellow and trying to hold on to the branches as long as they can.
December 3, 2025 at 9:46 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
On this rather dull and gloomy day, we are cheered by the generosity of donors - we have raised just over 10% of our target!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

#fundraising #community #donate #generosity #gratitude #giving #Swindon

www.justgiving.com/campaign/rjcaw
No blue sky to be seen, the trees stand in the copse, some covered with ivy. This is the site of our proposed Centre for Arts and Wildlife, and we are fundraising to get it built. The progress tracker bar placed at the bottom of the photo shows we have raised 11% of our target £50000 so far.
December 1, 2025 at 10:42 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
We're very grateful to the donors of these concrete slabs. They'll be a great start to making our community gardens wheelchair-accessible.

If anyone has slabs they're getting rid of, 450x450mm or thereabouts, please keep us in mind!

#allotment #CommunityGarden #gardening #Swindon #donate
Rows of concrete slabs stacked against the wall of the former pigsty. They measure 450x450.
December 1, 2025 at 9:47 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
#ThrowbackThursday to June this year, when the mulberries were starting to appear on the tree. It's gone dormant now, after the 2026 growing season, so we will add some gratitude-themed leaves to it (temporarily) during the first Sunday in December, as part of our National Tree Week celebrations.
Small green mulberries within the foliage of the mulberry tree, which has been around since before Richard Jefferies' time.
November 27, 2025 at 2:23 PM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
Once again, thank you for coming to our events, patronising our cafe, making donations, spreading the word about what we do, volunteering your time, and maybe even buying a lottery ticket to support our little museum!
The cottage side of the museum, complete with a beautiful example of a thatched roof, on a Sunday day in October 2025.
November 26, 2025 at 10:51 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
A wee reminder of our Tree Day party...

1-3pm, 7th December
FREE family event
Live music by HUSHWING

#Swindon #trees #nature #LiveMusic
The copper beech has gone quite bare; not many leaves are left on its branches (they are all on the ground).
November 25, 2025 at 11:48 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
Gardening volunteers needed!

Our gardens are looking a little sorry for themselves these days, as we have had fewer of our regular volunteers able to help us through the year.
A view of the front garden in late autumn / early winter. It is looking a bit sorry for itself, that's why we're looking for volunteers to help us!
November 24, 2025 at 11:09 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
Jelly ear #mushrooms!
A hand holding a piece of wood with two brown mushrooms growing on it. In the background is a toddler who is a regular visitor to the museum's Nature Tots stay and play group.
November 24, 2025 at 9:19 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
This week, there are only three leaves left on the mulberry tree, and mushroom-spotting seems to be the activity of the day.

We'll be adding some leaves of appreciation to this beautiful old tree on 7th December, 1-3pm. Do join us!
A little mushroom grows out of some dead wood. It's a sunny day, and it looks very majestic! A green(ish) mulberry leaf still clinging on to its branch. Almost all the leaves have fallen, so the people on the other side of the branches can now be seen. The sky is blue on a lovely wintry day.
November 21, 2025 at 10:41 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
Heartfelt appreciation ❤️ for the families who have booked spaces our Christmas events on Sunday 14th December. This event is now fully reserved.

As there are scams 🤬 offering to sell tickets to sold out events, no one should be offering to sell unwanted tickets in the comments on our Page.
A little angel made out of a lolly stick, paper doilies, metallic cupcake cases, tinselly pipe cleaners, and markers. Colours in use are gold and purple.
November 19, 2025 at 9:12 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
#ThrowbackThursday

"I used to lie down in solitary corners at full length on my back, so as to feel the embrace of the earth. The grass stood high above me, and the shadows of the tree-branches danced on my face."
The Story of My Heart

#quote
A cropped view of a couple of children squatting by the pond in the museum's lower garden, and everything is lush and green.
November 13, 2025 at 10:03 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
It's World Kindness Day!

A reminder that our Tree Day event is on 7th December at 1pm, where we feel warm fuzzies about the trees that give our world so much, and give thanks to our wonderful trees. There'll be live music from HUSHWING, and our cafe will be open.

#NationalTreeWeek #TreeParty
The orchard at the Richard Jefferies Museum in June this year. Apples, pears, and plum trees are the main 'crops' here. Wild ox eye daisies grow where they wish, with picnic benches set out for visitors to sit and enjoy a bit of nature.
November 13, 2025 at 10:03 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
"The lover of nature has the highest art in their soul..."
The Open Air

Our first floor 'museum room' has a new (ish) occupant.

#taxidermy #magpie #artefact #birds
A display case containing a taxidermy magpie, with a quote from Richard Jefferies (in the post text) in the background. All our taxidermy is old, most likely rescued from other museums when they have been disposing of their objects.
November 11, 2025 at 4:33 PM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
#MonochromeMonday

And here we have a ladybird, who's come to hang out during Nature Tots.

Ladybirds were everywhere, this summer just gone!

#nature #ladybird #autumn
A ladybird pauses on a leaf sitting on a much-used, much-marked folding table that has seen a lot of action during Nature Tots.
November 10, 2025 at 11:56 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
Just sent, our final email newsletter of the year: mailchi.mp/66a22b9a5c41...
Our copse area in the autumn, with a total blanket of leaves covering the ground quite vividly in orange, yellow and brown.
November 8, 2025 at 10:18 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
#FungiFriday #FridayPhoto

A beautiful, delicate fairy inkcap (I'm sure the Internet will let us know if we're wrong) spotted in the museum gardens this week.

www.mushroom-appreciation.com/fairy-inkcap...
A group of three fairy inkcap mushrooms, surrounded by decaying wood and moss.
November 7, 2025 at 11:07 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
Lots of motor skills development goes on at Nature Tots, as the little ones use their imaginations to play! (The bigger ones could probably stand to benefit from some outdoor play, too...)

richardjefferiesmuseum.sumupstore.com/product/natu...

#NatureTots #nature #outdoors #OutdoorPlay #FridayPhoto
A collage of four photos, showing toddlers at play in the museum's outdoor-focused stay and play group, Nature Tots. They are using their imaginations, creating stories, and building worlds with a wooden castle, mud kitchen, and painting on a roll of paper taped around a tree trunk.
November 7, 2025 at 10:35 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
Central to our plans for the future is the addition of a new cultural space on the museum site - a small hall complete with modern kitchen, multi-purpose fittings, café facilities, and accessible toilets.

#sustainability #eco #Swindon
Sketch of the proposed new community hall / building floor plan. It consists of accessible toilets, a hall suitable for talks, parties, and other events, plus a kitchen and seating area suitable for cafe use.
November 6, 2025 at 10:24 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
Ready to launch... 🚀

On this day, Richard Jefferies' 177th birthday, we are launching our fundraiser for our NEXT BIG THING, the Centre for Arts and Wildlife!

www.rjcaw.org

#arts #wildlife #fundraising #Swindon
An artist's sketch of what a new community building / hall could look like on our proposed site. The sketch is blended into a photograph of the copse area of the museum.
November 6, 2025 at 10:24 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
Autumn beauties...

We aren't "gonna be golden", we already are! 🥰

(Not that we're jumping on a bandwagon or anything - parents and fans of pop culture, IYKYK.)

#TextureTuesday #autumn
Shrubs with berries for birds, our mulberry going into dormancy for winter, and the holm oak, which never seems to go to sleep! A view of the mulberry tree's yellowing canopy from below, with sunlight peeking through the leaves.
November 4, 2025 at 11:38 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
Oh great Internet hive mind... this has turned up while #volunteers have been working on transforming our allotments. We *think* it's to do with horses (this was a farm, after all), and isn't anything as cool as something ancient. But #WhatIsIt, and when might it be from?

#Swindon
One side of a ring, about two inches in diameter. It's rusted, with something caked onto one third of the ring. There are two ridges spaced less than a centimetre apart on the ring. We have no idea what it is, but it was found where the cowshed used to be. One side of a ring, about two inches in diameter. It's rusted, with something caked onto one third of the ring. There are two ridges spaced less than a centimetre apart on the ring. We have no idea what it is, but it was found where the cowshed used to be.
November 3, 2025 at 11:10 AM
rjmuseum.bsky.social
Happy Halloween / Samhain, from all of us at the Richard Jefferies Museum! Enjoy your weekend, whatever you're doing.

#FridayPhoto #FridayFeeling #Halloween #Samhain
Some of the 'cast' who helped at the Richard Jefferies Museum Halloween afternoon - Rosie, in a green cloak, Mike, in top hat and tails (and ghoulish make up), Suzie in Victorian style dress and extra fluffy ears, and Ruth, in a witch costume. Two volunteers in inflated shark costumes dancing with museum director Mike Pringle, who is dressed in a top hat and tail, with ghoulish face paint.
October 31, 2025 at 12:14 PM