This painted fairy door is on a path at one end of a fairy garden in a Kamloops forest.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

Somewhere hidden amid a network of trails in the woods of Kamloops is an extensive and imaginative fairy garden, with little brightly-painted houses of all shapes and sizes either nestled in the long grass or hanging in the pine trees.

Melissa Zimmerman has lived in the neighbourhood near the fairy garden for almost twenty years. She said the garden started with a few baubles at Christmas time in 2017, and has continued to expand since, and she has even added her own special piece to it.

“We added a wind chime that was at my mom’s house before she passed away, I just couldn’t throw it away,” she said. “One day we went to the fairy garden and hung it up, and had a little snivel. It grounds me when I walk by it.”

Some of the fairy houses have words painted on them, indicating they are a post office or school or church, and there is evidence children play among the tiny “towns”, with little forgotten toys and cars left behind. Some fairy houses are brightly painted doors at the bottom of stumps while others are created out of sticks and grass. Most look to be made by crafters and added over the years.

“I really like it,” Zimmerman said. “Lots of little people have made artwork and added figurines. Sometimes we start at the end of the trail and sometimes the beginning and you see new things, you walk through and read little momentos. It makes me smile.”

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The location of the garden won’t be given away so people can discover it on their own and help protect it from vandalism. But if you’re hiking on the trails in Kamloops, you may want to keep your eyes open for fairies.

Dozens of painted bird houses hang from trees in a fairy garden in Kamloops.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

Tiny painted houses in Kamloops fairy garden.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

Fairy houses in the long grass in Kamloops.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

Fairy houses in a forest in Kamloops, including one (left) made out of a stump and decorated with shells.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

One of many fairy statues in the Kamloops forest garden.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

Wooden painted A frame fairy houses set up in a row in a Kamloops forest.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

Painted fairy house and barn, with toy horse and chair added.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

Fairy house, Kamloops.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

Fairy houses.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

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