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Helen McAra

@hedgerownibbler.bsky.social

440 followers 410 following 230 posts

I run plant & fungi ident courses, helping people reconnect with nature & discover the amazing wild foods of the UK. Nature lover especially wild orchids. Often found in woods & meadows hunting for inner peace and fungi. Wild Seasons Foraging #wildfood

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Reposted by Helen McAra

Natasha Devon @natashadevon.bsky.social · 11h

Number of deportations the ECHR have actually blocked since 1980 - 13 (THIRTEEN).

Please remember this next time some grifting populist claims us leaving the ECHR (and sacrificing the rights it gives us in the process) will allow us to ‘control our borders’.

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Reposted by Helen McAra

Natalie Bennett @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social · 4h

A profound rethinking of the history of #biodiversity.

"In new view, plants did not colonize a barren wasteland, but rather world prepared for them over eons by the ancient and persistent activity of the fungal kingdom."

scitechdaily.com/earth-was-a-...

Earth Was a Fungal World Before Plants Existed

Fungi arose long before plants, shaping Earth with early soils and nutrient cycles. Their hidden legacy shows they may have prepared the world for life to flourish on land.

scitechdaily.com

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Helen McAra @hedgerownibbler.bsky.social · 1d

They are incredible!

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Helen McAra @hedgerownibbler.bsky.social · 1d

Violet webcap (Cortinarius violaceus) growing under gorse today near the Devil’s Punchbowl in Surrey. An absolute stunner of a mushroom and nationally rare - it’s always good to see these beauties.
#ukfungi

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Reposted by Helen McAra

Francis Hickenbottom @fhickenbottom.bsky.social · 1d

After seeing Rugosomyces ionides (Violet Domecap) in a beechwood on limestone at Fairburn yesterday, I decided to search the same type of habitat at Brockadale and there it was. This is a more attractive specimen than ones seen yesterday. #fungi

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Reposted by Helen McAra

The Wee Owl Art (Scotland) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @theweeowl.bsky.social · 4d

Fly agaric mushrooms on a mossy mound of earth in the woods. This original artwork is available on Folksy...
folksy.com/items/8550552

#FlyAgaric #Mushrooms #OriginalArt #Drawing #ColourPencil #PenAndInk #Painting #Artwork #TraditionalArtist #ArtFromScotland #GiftIdeas #ArtShop #bsnm

A small colour drawing of red and white fly agaric mushrooms on a mound of earth covered in mosses deep in the forest.
Fly agaric is native to the UK. It grows in woodland and heathland on light soils among birch, pine or spruce.
An original art work, sold unframed.
Colour pencil and mixed media on acid free toned artist paper
5 by 7 inches (12.7 by 17.8 cm).

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Reposted by Helen McAra

Matt Berry @matthewberry.bsky.social · 5d

In haste before midnight hits here in Greece, here’s an Ophrys reinholdii for today’s #orctober post.

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Reposted by Helen McAra

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 5d

Spectacular googly-eyed octopus does battle with a lobster in this 2,000 year-old Roman mosaic from Pompeii! 🐙 🦞

Fantastic fishy onlookers too! 👀

From the House of the Geometric Mosaics. Now at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.
📷 by me

#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology

My photo shows a polychrome mosaic depicting Mediterranean marine life using earthy-coloured tesserae (mosaic tiles) against a black tessarae background. At the centre of the mosaic is a pale-coloured octopus composed of off-white and light brown tesserae with some of its writhing tentacles wrapped around the body of a lobster composed of light red, and pinky-brown tesserae. The octopus has an egg shaped body/head and it stares at the viewer with large eyes made of brown and pink circles with black centres.

The octopus and lobster are surrounded by various species of large and small Mediterranean fish and a mollusc, including an eel and a flat fish. On the left hand side of the scene there is a small kingfisher bird on top of a rock. Some of the fish appear to be watching the fight between the octopus and the lobster

This mosaic comes from the House of the Geometric Mosaics in Pompeii. Now on display at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.

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Helen McAra @hedgerownibbler.bsky.social · 5d

Amanita phalloides - Death Cap: always a thrill to find one if these beauties. I don’t see them that often so it was good to find one today. Sorry about the lighting. #ukfungi

Reposted by Helen McAra

KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 6d

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

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The Dangerous Ones @thedangerousones.com · 7d

This.
Is.
Brilliant.

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Evelyndroid's Aperture Séance and Spooky Spood-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · 6d

Habronattus alachua lass with the Head Tilt ❤️
#EmotionalSupportSpood #Arachtober

Light grey fuzzy jumping spider with reddish-brown stripes down her face across her big eyes, on a blade of dry grass tilting her head to peer at you

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Reposted by Helen McAra

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 6d

A 3,500 year-old Egyptian glass cosmetic jar with two little duck heads!

Glass was a relatively new material at that time, so this jar would have been a precious possession.

From Merit’s beauty case, found inside Theban tomb (TT8) of Merit and her husband Kha in 1906. 📷 Museo Egizio

#Archaeology

Museo Egizio Turin photo showing a small, dark-blue, core-formed, round glass jar which tapers in at the shoulders below the neck. It has yellow, white, and light blue festoon decoration trailed around the main body. There is a single yellow trail just below the neck of the jar. There is a dark-blue circular glass lid, the top of which is adorned with two dark-blue duck heads with yellow bills, a yellow trailed stripe on the top of each duck’s head, and indents for their eyes. The jar is displayed on a perspex (?) stand against a grey background. Glass jar dimensions: 7.6 cm x 9.6 cm.

Core-forming is one of the earliest glassmaking techniques. Glassmakers shaped the body of the vessel around a core, wound colored trails around it. They then let the vessel cool and removed the core.

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Helen McAra @hedgerownibbler.bsky.social · 6d

I will not be bored 🤩

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Helen McAra @hedgerownibbler.bsky.social · 6d

Thank you 🍄

Helen McAra @hedgerownibbler.bsky.social · 6d

They look like old hoof fungus fruiting bodies. Tough as old boots!

Helen McAra @hedgerownibbler.bsky.social · 6d

I’m so sorry you have to see this awful, hateful rubbish. Please know that there are many more people who don’t feel that way, it’s just we’re not endlessly on SM like the haters are. I have no idea how to make things better.

Reposted by Helen McAra

Clare Blencowe @clareblencowe.bsky.social · 8d

I am in the paper being authoritatively impressed with all y'all citizen scientist types.

▶️ www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Power to the people. Fungi forever!

Bravo @plantlifeuk.bsky.social - you're cool.

Fungi finds: UK citizen scientists make rare pink and purple discoveries

Plantlife charity enlisted help of 850 volunteers to look for waxcaps in places such as private gardens

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Helen McAra

Jeremy Bartlett @jeremybartlett.bsky.social · 7d

Giant Funnels, Aspropaxillus giganteus, in Earlham Cemetery, Norwich today.

Best left in situ: "Not a highly regarded mushroom", "can cause gastric upsets in some people" and have flesh that is "fairly tough and usually full of maggots."

www.wildfooduk.com/mushroom-gui...

#Fungi #FungiFriends

Giant Funnels, Aspropaxillus giganteus, by the edge of a tarmac road amongst fallen Hose Chestnut leaves.

Giant Funnels, Aspropaxillus giganteus, in cemetery grassland.

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Reposted by Helen McAra

WA Orchids @wa-orchids.bsky.social · 7d

Endemic to southern parts of Australia, the carnivorous Pimpernel Sundew (Drosera glanduligera) with its lovely orange flower. This one was growing on a lush bed of moss and was covered in early morning dew drops

#ozflora #wildoz #fierceflora #nativeplants #inaturalist #nature

A picture of a small sundew with carnivorous leaves at the base and an orange flower at the top of a short stem. This plant is growing on a lush bed of moss and is covered in early morning dew drops

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Reposted by Helen McAra

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 7d

Something lovely for the weekend!

Ancient Egyptian gold headband decorated with heads of gazelles and a stag between stars or flowers. Second Intermediate (Hyksos) period, Dynasty 15, c. 1648–1540 BC. 📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

#Archaeology

Met Museum photo of an Ancient Egyptian gold head ornament viewed from the front against a grey background. The headband is made of hammered sheet gold, the ends of which have been tapered to a narrower width and rolled to form loops. A string would have threaded through the loops to fasten the band around the head at the back. The front of the band is decorated with a central head of an antlered stag, identified as the Persian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica). The stag has two large antlers, large ears and a triangular-shaped head. It is flanked on either side by two gazelle heads. The gazelle heads have long ears and long curved horns which point outwards at the tip. Between the animal heads are four 8-pointed flowers or stars. Dimensions: height of central stag 8.9, length of headband 49.5 cm.

Dated to the Second Intermediate period (c. 1648-1540 BC) when northern Egypt was ruled by the Hyksos from the ancient Near East. Said to be part of a group of objects found in the Eastern Delta near Avaris, the Hyksos capital. The headband shows a mix of ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian artistic styles.

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Reposted by Helen McAra

Bernoid @bernoid.bsky.social · 7d

Every day is #UKFungusDay for me.

Caloboletus calopus - Bitter Beech Bolete

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Helen McAra @hedgerownibbler.bsky.social · 7d

Happy UK Fungus Day! All of these were photographed by me in the UK. Aren’t they beautiful!
#ukfungi #ukfungusday

Lots of different coloured mushrooms in a whole range of different shapes and sizes. Some look like coral, others like cauliflowers or little cream coloured balls. There are some that look like jellies or turkey’s tails.

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Reposted by Helen McAra

womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 7d

Autumn painting by US modern impressionist Erin Hanson #WomensArt

Painting with a view of trees with orange leaves and twisted branches in a landscape

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Helen McAra @hedgerownibbler.bsky.social · 9d

Parasol mushrooms (Macrolepiota procera) - these tasty mushrooms are incredibly tall (up to 25cm) with very large caps (15-35cm). These ones have their caps still curled under so they look like timpani drumsticks. They always make me marvel at their size every time I see them. Pretty common #ukfungi

Tall, cream, beige and brown mushrooms. The caps are still closed so are curled down and look like large drumsticks. The caps have brown scales on the top. They are growing in grass by the side of a footpath.