Nina Munteanu
@aliennextdoor.bsky.social
I'm an eco-fiction author, limnologist/aquatic ecologist, photographer, instructor at UofT. I explore and celebrate the fractal Natural World from microscopic diatoms and miniature lichens and fungi to the giant cedars and pines of old-growth forests
This LBM is called Scurfy Twiglet ... Check out its wonderful evolution from tiny shiny 'buds' to bell-shaped or open-umbrella... #fungi #LBMs #mushrooms #ecology #NaturePhotography themeaningofwater.com/2025/10/12/a...
Another LBM! Scurfy Twiglet in Catchacoma Forest
One of my favourite places to walk in the fall when I was in Ontario was through the old growth hemlock forest of Catchacoma (55 km north of Peterborough, off County Rd 507 to Gooderham). The walk …
themeaningofwater.com
December 6, 2025 at 6:40 PM
This LBM is called Scurfy Twiglet ... Check out its wonderful evolution from tiny shiny 'buds' to bell-shaped or open-umbrella... #fungi #LBMs #mushrooms #ecology #NaturePhotography themeaningofwater.com/2025/10/12/a...
Shapeshifting Fungi and a deadly beauty... #fungi #mushrooms #ecology #NaturePhotography themeaningofwater.com/2022/10/23/w...
When A Mushroom Hunt Finds a Deadly Beauty
Mark S. Burnham old-growth forest, ON (photo by Nina Munteanu) . In mid-October, I went on a guided mushroom hike with the Peterborough Field Naturalists in Mark S. Burnham Provincial Park. The par…
themeaningofwater.com
December 6, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Shapeshifting Fungi and a deadly beauty... #fungi #mushrooms #ecology #NaturePhotography themeaningofwater.com/2022/10/23/w...
Captured these sweet tiny Mycena acicula amid moss on a Douglas fir tree ... #fungi #mushrooms #Mycena
December 5, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Captured these sweet tiny Mycena acicula amid moss on a Douglas fir tree ... #fungi #mushrooms #Mycena
Climate Change and the colour of resilience ... #climatechange #resilience themeaningofwater.com/2024/03/31/c...
Climate Change and the Colour of Resilience
I’m an ecologist; I study environmental relationships. Something you’d think is easy to learn and very accessible; we’re surrounded by it, after all. We live, work and play in it. While I learned a…
themeaningofwater.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Climate Change and the colour of resilience ... #climatechange #resilience themeaningofwater.com/2024/03/31/c...
My drive across Canada: Part 4, Rockies and beyond... #Canada #CanadianRockies #RockyMountains #RockyMountainTrench themeaningofwater.com/2025/11/23/m...
My Drive Across Canada: Part 4—The Rockies & Beyond
Rocky Mountains, Alberta (photo by Nina Munteanu) . From the rolling Prairies I ascended up the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. As I neared the mountains, they seemed to cut the sky wi…
themeaningofwater.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:17 PM
My drive across #Canada: Part 3, the Prairies... #travel #Prairies #Manitoba #Saskatchewan ninamunteanu.me/2025/11/23/m...
My Drive Across Canada: Part 3—The Prairies
I emerged from the Lake of the Woods boreal forest into Manitoba’s true flatlands as I neared Winnipeg. Though, the eastern part of Manitoba was similar to the boreal hills of Ontario, it soon leve…
ninamunteanu.me
December 5, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Write a great book jacket blurb... #WritingCommunity #onwriting #books #blurbs ninamunteanu.me/2016/10/01/w...
Write a Great Book Jacket Blurb
A while ago I wrote about the importance of an effective—and accurately portrayed—book cover design for your book. To reprise, this includes not just the choice of cover image but the typology (how…
ninamunteanu.me
December 5, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Another fat beautiful bolete! Found this one (a pale version of Zeller's Bolete) as part of a ring around a Douglas fir ... #fungi #mushrooms #boletes #NaturePhotography
December 4, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Another fat beautiful bolete! Found this one (a pale version of Zeller's Bolete) as part of a ring around a Douglas fir ... #fungi #mushrooms #boletes #NaturePhotography
I got close and personal to this gorgeous mushroom Tricholoma terreum ... with consequences (see my article)
December 4, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Check out my favourite reads of 2023 ... #feminist #ecofiction #favouritebooks #BooksWorthReading ninamunteanu.me/2024/01/14/n...
Book Review: Nina’s “Favourite 3 Reads Of 2023– Feminist Eco-Fiction
In late 2023, I was invited by Shepherd to post an article of my favourite three reads of 2023. I had earlier that year posted on Shepherd an article describing what I considered to be the best eco…
ninamunteanu.me
December 4, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Check out my favourite reads of 2023 ... #feminist #ecofiction #favouritebooks #BooksWorthReading ninamunteanu.me/2024/01/14/n...
Writing in your own hand ... #onwriting #writers #handwriting #WritingCommunity ninamunteanu.me/2014/12/13/w...
Writing in Your Own Hand
How many of you still handwrite? I don’t just mean a letter to a friend or relative (although handwritten letters are growing increasingly rare) or a reminder to do something or shopping list. I’m …
ninamunteanu.me
December 4, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Writing in your own hand ... #onwriting #writers #handwriting #WritingCommunity ninamunteanu.me/2014/12/13/w...
Write a great book jacket blurb... #WritingCommunity #onwriting #books #blurbs ninamunteanu.me/2016/10/01/w...
Write a Great Book Jacket Blurb
A while ago I wrote about the importance of an effective—and accurately portrayed—book cover design for your book. To reprise, this includes not just the choice of cover image but the typology (how…
ninamunteanu.me
December 4, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Write a great book jacket blurb... #WritingCommunity #onwriting #books #blurbs ninamunteanu.me/2016/10/01/w...
When an Ink Cap #mushroom inks its way to goo-freedom... #fungi #inkcaps #Corpinellus #ecology #environment themeaningofwater.com/2023/07/02/w...
When an Ink Cap Inks Its Way to Goo Freedom…
Coprinellus domesticus starting its deliquescence, ON; note the curling up of the ink-streaked cap for spore delivery (photo by Nina Munteanu) Their mass rotted off them flake by flakeTil the thick…
themeaningofwater.com
December 3, 2025 at 7:13 PM
When an Ink Cap #mushroom inks its way to goo-freedom... #fungi #inkcaps #Corpinellus #ecology #environment themeaningofwater.com/2023/07/02/w...
Lichens that grow on lichens... #lichenicolous #lichens #ecology themeaningofwater.com/2025/06/01/l...
Lichen Ecology: Lichens that Grow on Lichens
Big lichen have little lichen upon their backs to mine them, and little lichen have lesser lichen, and so ad infinitum.Adapted from Augustus DeMorgan . It was recently—in the past year—that I rekin…
themeaningofwater.com
December 3, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Lichens that grow on lichens... #lichenicolous #lichens #ecology themeaningofwater.com/2025/06/01/l...
Found these gorgeous Amanita muscarias outside a cafe in Richmond. I'd been looking in forests for years and here they are on the edge of a parking lot! #fungi #Amanita #FlyAgaric #mushrooms
December 3, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Found these gorgeous Amanita muscarias outside a cafe in Richmond. I'd been looking in forests for years and here they are on the edge of a parking lot! #fungi #Amanita #FlyAgaric #mushrooms
The beauty of Jackman Flats in #BritishColumbia #Xeric #ecosystems #beauty themeaningofwater.com/2022/09/04/j...
Jackman Flats—A Strange and Unique Beauty
Jackson Flats, showing pines, junipers, and reindeer lichen (in foreground) with view toward Mica Mountain of the Rocky Mountain Trench, BC (photo by Nina Munteanu) . This past summer, I had the ch…
themeaningofwater.com
November 29, 2025 at 5:58 PM
The beauty of Jackman Flats in #BritishColumbia #Xeric #ecosystems #beauty themeaningofwater.com/2022/09/04/j...
The Rocky Mountain Trench Inland Sea... #ecofiction #books #water #NAWAPA #reservoirs #Canada #Canadianreservoirs themeaningofwater.com/2020/01/11/a...
A Diary in the Age of Water: The Rocky Mountain Trench Inland Sea
In my novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” (Inanna Publications) the diarist writes about the huge 800-km reservoir complex built in the late 2020s in the Rocky Mountain Trench to rehydrate the Unit…
themeaningofwater.com
November 29, 2025 at 5:56 PM
The Rocky Mountain Trench Inland Sea... #ecofiction #books #water #NAWAPA #reservoirs #Canada #Canadianreservoirs themeaningofwater.com/2020/01/11/a...
Walking helps me think and imagine... #onwriting #inspiration #walking #creativewriting #WritingCommunity ninamunteanu.me/2014/12/25/w...
Walking Helps Me Think and Imagine
I’ve written many articles and over a dozen books and readers often remark on my imagination with something akin to awe and incredulity. I often get asked where I get my ideas. Let me tell yo…
ninamunteanu.me
November 27, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Walking helps me think and imagine... #onwriting #inspiration #walking #creativewriting #WritingCommunity ninamunteanu.me/2014/12/25/w...
Just got my copy of Nova 37, German anthology of speculative fiction with my short story "The Way of Water" (Der Weg des Wassers), translated into German. The anthology is gorgeous, with illustrations for each story and a beautiful cover! #shortstories #anthologies #German #speculativefiction
November 23, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Just got my copy of Nova 37, German anthology of speculative fiction with my short story "The Way of Water" (Der Weg des Wassers), translated into German. The anthology is gorgeous, with illustrations for each story and a beautiful cover! #shortstories #anthologies #German #speculativefiction
My drive across #Canada: Part 3, the Prairies... #travel #Prairies #Manitoba #Saskatchewan ninamunteanu.me/2025/11/23/m...
My Drive Across Canada: Part 3—The Prairies
I emerged from the Lake of the Woods boreal forest into Manitoba’s true flatlands as I neared Winnipeg. Though, the eastern part of Manitoba was similar to the boreal hills of Ontario, it soon leve…
ninamunteanu.me
November 23, 2025 at 9:33 PM
My drive across #Canada: Part 3, the Prairies... #travel #Prairies #Manitoba #Saskatchewan ninamunteanu.me/2025/11/23/m...
My drive across Canada: Part 4, Rockies and beyond... #Canada #CanadianRockies #RockyMountains #RockyMountainTrench themeaningofwater.com/2025/11/23/m...
My Drive Across Canada: Part 4—The Rockies & Beyond
Rocky Mountains, Alberta (photo by Nina Munteanu) . From the rolling Prairies I ascended up the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. As I neared the mountains, they seemed to cut the sky wi…
themeaningofwater.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:31 PM
My drive across Canada: Part 4, Rockies and beyond... #Canada #CanadianRockies #RockyMountains #RockyMountainTrench themeaningofwater.com/2025/11/23/m...
The Lichen at the end of the world... #lichen #ecology #NaturePhotography #extremophile #environment themeaningofwater.com/2025/07/27/t...
The Lichen At the End of the World
Lichens are badass shapeshifters. These unruly organisms that thrive in extreme environments and changing conditions grow everywhere. And most of us don’t even notice them. Lichens can be found all…
themeaningofwater.com
November 21, 2025 at 6:17 PM
The Lichen at the end of the world... #lichen #ecology #NaturePhotography #extremophile #environment themeaningofwater.com/2025/07/27/t...
#Boletes are SO COOL! These are Zeller's Boletes (Xerocomellus zelleri) start with grey caps and reddish stems... I found them this fall in my Douglas fir forest in #BritishColumbia: young ones on left and older ones on right. Cool how they change over time... #fungi #mushrooms #NaturePhotography
November 21, 2025 at 12:15 AM
#Boletes are SO COOL! These are Zeller's Boletes (Xerocomellus zelleri) start with grey caps and reddish stems... I found them this fall in my Douglas fir forest in #BritishColumbia: young ones on left and older ones on right. Cool how they change over time... #fungi #mushrooms #NaturePhotography
More fungi on fungi! I found these gorgeous white coral fungi (Clavulina coralloides) on the forest floor with the mosses; then I noticed that some were turning blue-gray from their base: this is the parasitic Ascomycete Helminthosphaeria clavariarum... #fungi #mushrooms #ecology #NaturePhotography
November 18, 2025 at 5:50 PM
More fungi on fungi! I found these gorgeous white coral fungi (Clavulina coralloides) on the forest floor with the mosses; then I noticed that some were turning blue-gray from their base: this is the parasitic Ascomycete Helminthosphaeria clavariarum... #fungi #mushrooms #ecology #NaturePhotography
#BookReview of A Diary in the Age of Water: "Munteanu transmutes a harrowing dystopia into a transcendentalist origin myth…A sobering and original cautionary tale that combines a family drama with an environmental treatise.” #ecofiction themeaningofwater.com/2020/12/27/a...
“A Diary in the Age of Water” Reviewed by Kirkus Reviews, The Winnipeg Free Press and The Miramichi Reader
Nina Munteanu’s cli-fi eco-novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” just released in summer of 2020 received several favourable reviews from Kirkus Reviews, The Winnipeg Free Press, and The Miramichi Re…
themeaningofwater.com
November 18, 2025 at 9:03 AM
#BookReview of A Diary in the Age of Water: "Munteanu transmutes a harrowing dystopia into a transcendentalist origin myth…A sobering and original cautionary tale that combines a family drama with an environmental treatise.” #ecofiction themeaningofwater.com/2020/12/27/a...