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Lisa

@ellepedscalny

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Fervent Naturalist & fungi fan-girl, living on Vancouver Island 🇨🇦🍄🌿
Mindfulness teacher (& lifelong student) 🙏
Apprenticing in revolutionary love ❤️✨

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Friends, I’m honored to have several of my mushroom photographs featured in the Fall 2025 issue of Fungi Magazine 🍄

This article explores creative approaches to mushroom photography, and I’m grateful my images were included to illustrate themes like texture, depth of field and the magic of forest light. ✨🙏

Deep thanks to @fungimagazine and article author Jim Cornish for including my work, alongside some really wonderful photographers. 🙏😊🍄‍🟫

📖 You can view the article here:
https://www.fungimag.com/v18i4/v18i4-photographers.pdf (Link also in bio) by @ellepedscalny

It’s a central pillar in my life now…but mindfulness didn’t come easily for me.

I knew the science. I believed in the benefits. I’d read countless books. But actually *living* it - practicing consistently, in a way that felt nourishing and sustainable - was hard.

It wasn’t until I began incorporating nature into my practice that things shifted.

Nature made mindfulness intuitive. Joyful. Personal. It reconnected me to parts of my inner and outer environments I’d lost touch with. And it helped me discover that the vast wisdom of nature was already in me.

That’s what Becoming Mindful by Nature is all about; a 4-week, nature-supported introduction to mindfulness, starting April 27.

This course is an invitation to:

🌱 Cultivate a practice that fits your life

🌿 Be supported by the natural world (and a caring community)

🧘‍♀️ Feel reconnected to the Nature in you

If this calls to you, I hope you’ll join us. Scholarships are available. All levels welcome. 🙏

✨ Register at the link in my bio

#mindfulness #mindfulbynature #natureasteacher #mindfulnesscourse #meditationpractice #earthbasedspirituality #mindfulnessforbeginners #mindfulnesspractice by @ellepedscalny

I think this marks my sixth or seventh consecutive autumn finding the extraordinary Violet Hedgehog (Sarcodon fuscoindicus), and I can assure you, the thrill never wears off! 😍💜🍄

As if their richly textured, velvety purple caps and thousands of tiny, violet spines weren’t remarkable enough, these mushrooms have another fascinating quality: they can be used to dye fabric!

With the right preparation and mordants (substances that help dyes bind to fibres), these beauties can reportedly produce an astonishing range of colours, from soft blues and purples to rich teals and greens! 💙💚💜

I’ve now accumulated a small collection of dried specimens that I’d love to try dyeing fabric with, but having zero experience and realizing how many supplies and steps are involved, I’m feeling a little intimidated! 😂 If any of you have firsthand experience with mushroom dyeing, I’d love to hear from you! 💜🍄

#fantasticfungi #mushroomsociety #vancouverisland #fungiphotography #violethedgehog by @ellepedscalny

I could use a little help from my fungi-loving friends with this beautiful coral mushroom! 🍄💜🪸

I found this lovely lavender and cream-coloured specimen growing on decaying wood in a mature second growth forest in central Vancouver Island. After spending some time with the wonderful Ramaria key offered by @_svims , I’m wondering if it might be Ramaria rubella, but I’m far from certain.

Does anyone familiar with Ramaria have thoughts on the ID? I’d love to hear your suggestions! And if you have no interest in knowing what to call it officially 😅🤷‍♀️, perhaps you can join me in admiring its beauty nonetheless. 🤩🍄‍🟫🙏💜 by @ellepedscalny

Hi friends! I am doing my annual giveaway of one of my mushroom calendars. You can enter in three easy steps:

1. Like & Save this post ✅
2. Make sure you’re following @ellepedscalny ✅
3. Tag a mushroom loving friend (or several! 😅) ✅

➕Bonus entry for sharing this post in your stories and tagging me.➕

I’ll be accepting entries until Sunday, November 8 and will choose a winner on the 9.

Thanks in advance for your support! 🤗🙏🍄‍🟫❤️🍄 by @ellepedscalny

“Beauty exists not in sameness, but in difference.” ~Paulo Coelho 🙏🍄‍🟫 by @ellepedscalny

Throw back to my favorite (and most time consuming to create!) Halloween costume ever! 😂🍄🙌 My husband and I spent an entire weekend crafting this Amanita muscaria hat out of a sombrero and wire, covered in felt and fabric and little styrofoam balls. By the end of it, my fingers had been jabbed by needles and burned by hot glue at least 100 times…but it was worth it. Believe it or not, I even wore it to a Zoom meeting with my team. It still makes me laugh to remember their reaction 😅🤣, so I figured it was worth bringing it back today. Happy Halloween, everyone! 🍄🎃 by @ellepedscalny

Is it just me, or does this little crowd look like they’re waiting for the show to start?! 😂🍿🍄‍🟫

I loved finding this wonderfully arranged cluster of young Big Gyms (Gymnopilus ventricosus), all packed together like an eager little audience! I’m going to do my best to return to this spot because I’m so curious what they’ll look like once fully grown. This species isn’t called “big” for nothing…mature caps can reach 30 cm across! 😍🍄‍🟫 by @ellepedscalny

I’ve often been known to say that as much as I appreciate the vivid rainbow of colours the fungi kingdom offers…it’s the textures that really make me swoon. And from that perspective, Suillus lakei, commonly known as the Western Painted Suillus, is pretty hard to beat! 😍🍄‍🟫

From its shaggy, cinnamon-brown cap to the delicate, cottony remnants of its partial veil, this little mushroom has so many beautiful details to appreciate. And underneath, instead of gills, you’ll find an intricate arrangement of golden-yellow pores (swipe to the second photo for a closer look!).

Like many of our forest fungi, this species forms a mutually beneficial relationship with trees, specifically Douglas-fir, exchanging nutrients and water for sugars produced through photosynthesis. Another beautiful example of the interconnectedness of life in our forests! 🍄🌲🕸️ by @ellepedscalny

It seems to have become a fall tradition for me to photograph & share info about this species - but I think it’s so interesting, that I’m unapologetically going to do it again! 😉

Long before I ever came across stunningly vivid, turquoise Chlorociboria aeruginascens in “full bloom”, I had observed the beautiful blue-green stain left behind in the wood the fungus inhabits. 😍🍄 Initially, I did not realize what I was seeing; but after my first encounter with the fruit-bodies, my research lead me to discover that the coloured wood I had previously marvelled at was caused by the presence of this fungus, which stains the wood it inhabits (whether or not it is actually fruiting). Apparently, the discoloration is caused by the production of the pigment xylindein. This pigment naturally exists in several different forms of various colors within the wood cells; the combination of a yellow-orange form with a blue-green form results in the dazzling blue-green coloration of the colonized wood. From what I have read, scientists do not know exactly how Chlorociboria aeruginascens causes this reaction inside the wood, but it has been prized for centuries by woodworkers and craftsman who have used it to produce beautifully coloured wooden creations, and we have begun collecting it to adorn our flowerbeds (with the added bonus of having it close on hand come the fall fruiting season, when these beautiful cups will emerge once more). Amazing, right?! 😵💙💚🍄👌

#fantasticfungi #mushroomsociety #chlorociboriaaeruginascens #fungiphotography #naturephotography by @ellepedscalny

“Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.” ~ @robinwallkimmerer by @ellepedscalny

One of the gifts of photography is the way it can transport me back to the beauty and wonder of a moment…and I’ve been especially grateful for that gift lately, as some physical challenges have kept me from the forest for a while. 🙏🍄‍🟫✨

This image is a perfect example: I was photographing another mushroom last month when I glanced over and spotted this little beauty, suddenly illuminated by a beam of light filtering through the trees, with the most gorgeous golden glow bathing the forest behind it. Knowing how fleeting conditions like this can be, I stopped what I was doing to soak it all in and capture the scene before it disappeared.

And now, weeks later, I can still feel the wonder and appreciation I was awash in then. My hope is that you can sense some of it, too. 🤩🍄‍🟫✨🩷 by @ellepedscalny