Canvas of the Forest

When we were growing up, hiking the mountain and walking the many trails, we occasionally collected large tree funguses - Artist’s Conks, the "canvas of the forest." It is shelf like and has a hard brown upper part and a soft, white underside which darkens when marked on. These became common places for us to record special events - hikes, illustrations  and historic events of that time. So we have a collection of dried fungus on a shelf in the living room. One documents the lack of Americans participating in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, the same year 52 Americans were being held in Iran. We also made a memorial to Dad, a forever reminder of his love of being in the woods. And a very talented Squabetty guest memorialized this magical place.  I wonder if the next generation will memorialize events of their lives on the funguses that characterize dead and dying hardwood trees - a new (or perhaps old) kind of historic document.