Anni's naturally sculptured Bracket Fungus.

I was given this amazing natural sculpture by my friend Anni.
Clearly it is a very old Bracket Fungus, which was attached to a piece of very ancient firewood.
That's all very well, I just fell in love with the look of it.Fungi are pretty remarkable.
                                  

Art is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it?

Anni's Bracket Fungus
To me the "Brackets" remind me of
the ears of a cartoon dog.
If two ears are good, three are better, right?

Pluto Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas.jpg
Source: The Disney Wiki
DisneyEnchantedPDVD 346.jpg

With a growth point which resembles a face
is it any wonder it reminds me of a cartoon dog face?
It even has an "eye".

Looks like the flap of a dog's ear, to me.
Ain't Nature wonderfully weird?
This is the underside where the pores were.
This poor old specimen was very dry.
I have since soaked it for 24 hours,
and will observe it,
to see if it becomes fresh again.

Seen from above
you can see the growth rings
in the Bracket Fungus
Unlike many "mushrooms"
bracket fungi are hard textured
on the upper side,
and have pores on the underside.

Have a look at this nice image of a species of Bracket Fungus showing the soft white underside of the Bracket Fungus which is where the spores are produced.
http://research.fuseink.com/artifactimg/MTMyNjQzOTQ0NDQ1ODVfMQ.JPG

Here is a more scientific Blog post about one of the regular, large species of Bracket Fungi in Australia Ganoderma australe.

I anticipate receiving a message from Le Loup, who writes a "Wood Runner's Diary" because he likes these things for use as "Tinder". Keith is keeping alive the art of what he refers to as "Primitive Skills" (including fire lighting) and ancient flint-lock weapons.

There are also reports of the Ice Man (a neolitic corpse found in 1991, in the European Alps between Italy and Austria) having carried pieces of bracket Fungi for use as "tinder" (for fire lighting).
Among the numerous items of the Ice Man�s equipment were three fungal objects: two different shaped, polypore-like fungal fragments, each mounted separately on a leather thong; and a mysterious �black matter,� filling up the major part of his �girdle bag.� The black matter, which was first thought to be resin representing part of a prehistoric repair kit (Lippert and Spindler 1991; Egg and Spindler 1993), was later shown to be tinder material prepared from the true tinder bracket Fomes fomentarius (L.: Fr.) Fr. (Sauter and Stachelberger 1992; Poder et al., 1995; Peintner et al., 1998). The two whitish, polypore-like objects—one shaped more or less like a Scots pine cone, the other more spheroidal—were identified as fruitbody fragments of the polypore Piptoporus betulinus (Bull.: Fr.) P.Karst. (Poder et al., 1992; Peintner et al., 1998).
So far, this represents the only case in which mushrooms were obviously part of a prehistoric person�s equipment;

Source: http://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/708ae68d64b17c52,0d0f121956dd501b,30e4e1021c1fecff.html