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Lydia Massiah

@lydiamassiah.bsky.social

1.4K followers 1.5K following 1.2K posts

Writer, wanderer, wonderer, always curious to learn more. Knows a smattering about much, but not much about anything. Worried about biodiversity loss. What's happening is one big horror story.

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Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 17m

Your talk looks very much my thing but alas, a bit far to go. Good luck with it!

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Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 21m

Nope!

Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 26m

Ah yes, Maxwell the famous naturalist, who set up a basking shark fishery on the island of Soay that killed 1000s of sharks & wiped out the local population - so much so they still haven't recovered from being hunted.

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Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 42m

Fascinating, thank you. Sections in H is for Hawk explore this very interesting topic too. I've also always been suspicious of D H Lawrence's attitude to animals & what it reveals about his instincts in pieces like Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine - compared to the poem Snake.

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Reposted by Lydia Massiah

Richard Smyth @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 3h

Today I am mostly thinking about the popular inter-war literary genre 'animal stories written by fascists'. Join me.

Title page of a collection of animal stories by Henry Williamson: TARKA THE OTTER, SALAR THE SALMON, THE EPIC OF BROCK THE BADGER, CHAKCHEK THE PEREGRINE.

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Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 22h

Nature's colour combinations are superb!

Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 1d

Delightful aren't they? I love finding them at this time of year though they're often tiny - & sunshine is bleaching the tops paler atm

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Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 1d

There are different types of Amanita in a small space of this beech wood. The Blusher (Amanita rubescens) is clearest when it blushes, but they can be just brown & white so I'm guessing all of these are Blushers. Some are huge! There are also Fly Agarics (more Aminita types). #MushroomMonday

Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 1d

Amethyst Deceiver on a fallen beech leaf. The beauty in our woods right now💜🤎
#MushroomMonday

Purple gilled small mushroom lying on a coppery orange beech leaf

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Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 1d

They such bright fungi - really eye-catching 🍄

Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 2d

Beautiful Fly Agarics in vast numbers on Exmoor today. This birch grove led us astray as we wandered from one scarlet patch to another through the birch trees until we had lost the path. A peaceful, enchanted-feeling place.

Three red fungi with white spots in woodland

A large red fungus with white spots & a smaller one

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Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 2d

I'm not used to seeing waxcaps in woods but Horner Wood on Exmoor had amazing fungi today. These Parrot Waxcaps were a treat!

Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 3d

Summer's over but my pots haven't got the memo. The one with white cosmos, vanilla-scented nemesia, magenta geraniums, trailing bacopa & a deep purple aeonium is at it's best ever! Except the cosmos, all the plants survived last winter outside! The other pot has purple salvia, verbena & petunia 💜🤍🩷💚

Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 4d

A cherry dining table sounds beautiful 😍

Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 5d

They're such amazing pieces of furniture - so rewarding. You're doing a great job.

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Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 5d

What a transformation! Well done!

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Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 5d

They're both very sweet dogs

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Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 5d

Buddy and Poppy ready for their walk. The pillow wasn't originally for them but they're enjoying the extra comfort 😄

Two red and white collies in the back of a car, one sitting, one lying down

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Reposted by Lydia Massiah

Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 10d

This could be a long and rambling thread. Be patient with me.

I bought an old mahogany bureau on Ebay. I didn't really want a bureau as we're meant to be downsizing, but it was a beautiful piece & obviously very old. Google lens suggests the brass chased handles are Queen Anne. That's 1702-1714 😯

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Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 6d

Thank you. It makes me love the bureau even more!

Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 7d

How strange 🤔 Like the Glastonbury Thorn (which is twice flowering). You'll have to give these Anemones a special local name - and perhaps religious significance 😄

Reposted by Lydia Massiah

Pagan Birder @paganbirder.bsky.social · 7d

Treasure hunting again on the magical Quantock Hills, a very good year for fungi 😀 #quantockhills #ukfungi

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Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 7d

What a stunning collection 😍

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Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 7d

Continuing the theme of love for things that are looking a bit battered:
this morning an end-of-season worse-for-wear Small Copper butterfly flew across my path & landed on a similarly coppery autumn leaf 🍂 copper & russet shades in perfect partnership.

What more evocative symbol of the season?

Tattered orange butterfly on a russet autumn leaf.

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Lydia Massiah @lydiamassiah.bsky.social · 7d

🤎🙏