Flowers, Fungi and Ferns - Oh My!

Update July 2: I did a little further digging (so to speak) and came up with an identification of the mystery fungus below. It would appear that it's Xylaria polymorpha (Dead Man's Fingers). It has the ability to morph into different appearances, so that is probably why I didn't locate what I'd expected to see a few days later. Thank you Tammie Lee for attempting to provide a solution. That prompted me to look into the coral fungi where I eventually found what I was looking for.

Most of these photos were taken at least a few weeks ago. They're what seems to be left over on my hard drive and just happened to work out with a flower, fungi and fern theme.

Apple blossoms at the height of spring.

Doesn't this looks like a beautifully-sculpted bowl?

This area is deep inside a well-shaded cedar grove. In the morning, one single shaft of light beamed through to illuminate this fern.

This is the view behind a sunlit flower. It almost looks as if a wee faerie could take up residence here.

Or perhaps right here.

Late day sunshine bathes a field of ferns. Magenta phlox punctuates the picture nicely.

A solitary flower, which looks a lot like the wild chicory I see a bit later in the season - except it's not blue. It's doing its best to grow toward the sunlight through the chain link fence.

This triple capped mushrooms could almost pass for a plate of sloppy pancakes. There's more interesting green fungus all down the right hand side of the stump. And just below that, we noticed a most unusual fungus - something I've never seen before...

Tubular, metallic silver and teal. Frank and I both got busy snapping photos of this one. Notice how some of the tips appear to be either two blips blending into one or one beginning to separate into two? I'm betting it's the latter. If anyone has any idea what this is, please let me know (Leah? Maybe your Mike knows?). It was gone without a trace when I went back to look for it just a few days later.

Further Google sleuthing has identified the fungus for me. Eerily enough, they're called Dead Man's Fingers or by the Latin name Xylario Polymorpha. Here's my source.

A pretty yellow iris looking like sunshine itself.

And just a tiny bit more yellow in the middle of this spring blossom.

Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians!