Photos and stories by Chiaki


The Legend of the Fairy Slippers

In early spring about the time when bears may wake up from long winter sleep, fairies seem to have big party gathering in the forest of Canadian Rocky Mountains. Tiny, tiny fairy slippers are scattered all over the place covered with dead leaves in the dry, bright forest. Fairies may be drunk by aroma of spring and danced all night forgetting coming morning. After dancing, they were so tired that could not wear shoes. And they could be sleeping comfortably under the leaves of young grass shaking in the breeze from glacier. The shoes left behind are blooming in to flowers.

These pretty orchids are blooming in the pine forest beside of the Johnson Lake in the area of Banff. The size of flower is about 2 cm to 3 cm and the height of stalk is about 10 cm blooming gregariously. Round green leaves cannot be seen in the picture. This area is cross mixed human and wild life border such as bear, cougar, elk etc.. We are coexisting in peace.

The picture was taken at May 25, 2001 in the forest beside the Johnson Lake.

In the Breeze from Glacier

Lady’s slipper

As I was taking my usual hike in the grand Rockies, I thought I heard some singing and chatting in the bushes and believed that somebody was in there. I peeped in the bush and found these fully blooming Lady’s Slippers. I imagined there were fairy ladies chatting in there and when they knew that a human was coming close, they extinguished their figures but forgot to hide their slippers. The slippers are lined up as if fairies gathered together and disappeared just seconds before I arrived.

In the springtime in the Rocky mountain forests, many fairies may gather. They could be dancing, drinking, singing a song, chatting and flying everywhere around the mountains. However, they distinguish their figures or hide in secret spots in the forest whenever a human comes close. Therefore, humans cannot see them but can find their trace as blooming flowers.

This yellow orchid, Lady’s Slippers, like a tiny wooden shoe is blooming in the bright bush on the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in early June, slightly later than the season of the Fairy Slippers. According to the many books on wild flowers, the Lady’s Slippers exist in many different colors such as yellow, pink and white. However, the majority of them are yellow, white is very rare and pink flowers are never found around here. It is usual about 20cm tall and the length of the flower is about 2-3cm. This picture was taken in the Bow Valley Provincial Park in Alberta on June 8^th 2001.