Izzy McLeod

Despite being named after burnt buns King Alfred's Cakes (Daldinia concentrica) are not edible, they're sometimes also known as coal fungus and are quite useful as firelighters with evidence they've been used as such for over 7,000 years. Called King Alfred's cakes because of a story where King Alfred is hiding from the Vikings and hiding in a woman's home, she asked him to watch her bread on the fire and he neglects them. Letting them burn. Speaking of bread, there are currently over a million of Palestinians starving, with the most recent atrocity being the flour massacre where Israeli troops opened fire on people just waiting for aid and killed at least 112 people and injured 750 more who were waiting for flour so they could eat. Senseless killing of people with no defence, day after day. I feel like despite how long it's been I'm still in shock that we're all watching this happen through our phone screens, and yet who with power is actually doing anything about this? When will it end? I am so ashamed of our governments.

Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus! From one hot welsh gay to all the others in my phone 😘

We're having a mossy monday today. In winter along with looking for lichens moss is one of my favourite things to observe. This is a forest in the Breacon Beacons and I audibly gasped so many times on my walk through it because it was so mossy and so beautiful and green and soft and soggy. If you want to learn more about their amazing lives I highly reccomend Robin Wall Kimmerer's book Gathering Moss. It's small but mighty, just like moss itself. I also nearly lost my boot in a boggy bit and had a good laugh at myself. This if your sign to go and have a solo walk in the woods and admire all the moss! #Moss #ForestBathing #苔

Had the pleasure of visiting the Palestinian embroidery exhibition at @whitworthart today. From folk tradition and craft done mostly by rural women, often expressing their connection to the natural world, to embroidery as a tool of resistance, as political art  giving women financial freedom too. With stories and pieces from imprisoned men too. My pictures show only a fraction of the exhibition.  "Politics is the expression of the self, so folklore is political in itself"- Subhiye Krayem  I keep trying to write how I felt about the exhibition in a coherent way but long words fail me. I'll say briefly, awe, anger, grief, a fire in me to support the resistance, Wondering how many of the artists whose work is featured are still alive.  One tradition I thought i would share is of widowed women drenching their bright embroidered pieces with indigo turning them dark. Over time as bleached by the sun patches of the bright embroidery would come through again reflecting the slow easing of grief,  but never be quite the same.  - info taken from a piece by Majd Abdel Hamid  Works in order of appearance  1, 2, 8 -intifada dressed 1987-1993 from the collection of Tiraz: Widad Kawar home from Arab dress 3- ayahaidar, safer spaces 2023. Shattered, and Fire bomb  4. Adnan Al-Sharif, 'the women's struggle' published by FATAH (Palestinian National-Liberation movement); General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW); Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO); 1976  5. Khalil Rabah. hide geographies: Acampamento Vila Nova Palestine 2017 6. Abu Qutbeh, 1870, from the collection of Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi Museum for Palestinian heritage  7. Bilab Bi Delo, Wella, Ola Zamel, Julie Fox, Sofwat 2019-2022 Excuse the shoddy pictures, wish I had taken my camera.

Just a few of the Cardiff/south Wales Palestine solidarity events coming up! #freepalestine #strikeforpalestine Feel free to drop/tag more in the comments

A WIP for @spafcollective Wales Palestine solidarity quilt and a reminder that this week is #GlobalStrikeForPalestine with lots of ways to get involved, I've shared and will share more resources on my stories. It was been 107 days of this "war", this genocide, with over 25,000 people killed which equates to more than 1 in 100 people. But this occupation has lasted over 70 years. There is yet no end in sight while countries like the UK, US, Germany and so many more not only ignoring this genocide but also funding, fueling, and profiting from it. This will not stop unless the world continues to condemn and further condemns the actions of Israel, boycotts are already costing brands billions while they desperately scramble to cover up, South Africa has brought Israel to the international court of justice for genocide, followed now by Indonesia, Slovenia. As Clare Daly, Irish MEP said, Israel is losing the court of public opinion. We can continue to push to end this. If you have been ignoring this, you still have time to turn around and witness, share, protest, boycott, call and write, divest, and so much more. Just start somewhere, join the global strike for #ceasfirenow #🇵🇸 Check out @queersinpalestine @wizard_bisan1 @bdsnationalcommittee @theslowfactory for more and if you're Cardiff based @cardiffstopthewar @apartheidfreezone.cardiff @blmcardiff

I now have a picture to match every straight man on a dating app in South Wales! What an achievement. I mean it was I didn't mean to go up the difficult side of pen y fan and I'm not sure I have legs or lungs anymore. Aanyway I have not posted on the feed in a while so this seems like a good time to say. FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸🍉 -keep sharing -keep protesting -keep boycotting -keep witnessing, keep feeling keep grieving Don't lose hope, don't give up, this will not end without pressure, but the pressure is doing something.

Me in my natural habitat, knelt in nature, face in a bush, looking for mushrooms 🍄 Feat some fungi I have taken pictures of lately, looking very fantastical and wonderful, as they always do. Haven't Id'd a lot of them because these were taken on a very busy day where I saw maybe 40 different kinds of fungi and I kind if just wanted to picture them in all their glory! Thank you @matt_or_bea_always_me for the photos of me in a bush. Every the supportive partner when I run off to look at a mushroom

Queer Kew pt 2. daytime adventures. @kewgardens You didn't think I could go to queer Kew and only make one post?? No I couldn't. I want back during the day after the evening event and it was a lovely, but a bit contrasting, day. First of all an event showcasing the diversity and queerness of natural life yes!! I think my favourite bits were the central installation by Jeffery Gibbon, it's beautiful, and the intersection of queer nature and ballroom inspiration? Yes I am here for it (as a queer nature person also in ballroom). I also really loved the video installation of all the queer people talking about queer nature, sat and listened for a while. Also have the youth forum zine to read still and I am excited to learn from that! It was a contrast to the evening event, going during the day though as it wasn't just full of other queers and it was interesting feeling a bit observes as a queer person. People would be giving their opinions of the installation, see me and stop 😅😂 and honestly I didn't spend too long in the busy temperate house. Being on brand I went and looked for fungi in the woods mostly (and found a lot!) and saw a fox chilling with a full audience in broad daylight. Also took 100 photos of the water lillies in bloom because I am OBSESSED, and want to do some kind of collage project with them, not sure what yet though. It was a beautiful day to be outside, and inside, with the plants. But yes to an organisation as big as Kew platforming queer ecology on such a big platform, yes to more and more of this! And in more accessible and varied ways (cause Kew is not cheap). Can recommend if you're in London before the end of October.

It's #MushroomMonday and I had the pleasure of visiting Queer nature at Kew and alongside visiting the event at the temperate house I also went to look for some queer nature myself out in the rest of the gardens Probably saw more fungi that I ever have in one day, was spectacular! Didn't id lots as I wasn't there to pick but there were some exciting finds including a mass of giant funnel, my first fly agaric, and some distant chicken of the woods. @kewgardens

Queer Kew after hours! Oh What a night @kewgardens . Definitely need more queer nature nights like this in my life. I might be biased as a queer fungi enthusiast but my highlight of the night was definitely the @bemoremushroom cabaret and life drawing. Amazing, would've watched it like three times if I didn't have 101 other things to do. Also really loved @bi.curious.george_drag! And very sad I didn't get a chance to make any badges with @badgecafe , oh and the science talk about glom, what a guy (a fungi) I mean it was all great. My pictures could be better though, it was a little too dark for my lovely camera to do its best work with me. I was both incredibly inspired and feeling a liiittle bit of impostor syndrome the whole night, it was wonderful. I want to make so much more queer nature based art and community things! And I shall, after a long nap because a whole weekend at Kew has knocked my chronically fatigued ass right into bed.

Queer mushroom things! Queer mushroom things! Delighted to announce that The Future is Fungal project is putting on two queer fungi events next month with @bloedd_ac as part of @beinghumanfest First a queer fungi walk at St fagans, we've done two before this, both amazing, highly recommend! The second is a queer fungi evening, I'll be doing my (updated and improved) queer fungi talk and we will be talking about the project and our new education resource and making some models of ourselves as fungi. If you wanna be involved in either email bloedd.ac@museumwales.ac.uk

Happy #MushroomMonday and it's a very fruitful one! Found barely any fungi for most of this walk and then stumbled on so many amazing (and many tiny and adorable and cool) finds. I am now obsessed with oysterlings. They are so pretty, and so cute, angelic lil guys