VICTORIA -- About four years ago, we first noticed something unexpected in a tall tree near the edge of Beacon Hill Park.

It was a large sphere -- created by intricately woven vines – hanging like a Christmas ornament. The people passing by were all impressed, and kept asking the same questions: How did it get hung so high? Why was it made? Who did it?

The only person who had no doubt who was responsible was a woman named Sandra. She confidently proclaimed it was the work of "wood elves."

"They're everywhere," Sandra said, before suggesting we go into the forest and see for ourselves. So we went searching. We didn't find any wood elves, but we did discover more of the mysterious creations.

We spotted vines woven into balls, flowers, and peace signs – hung in municipalities all over the Capital Region from Saanich to Esquimalt, Victoria and Central Saanich. We even met a man with one hanging from his backpack. He said he found it in a nearby park and wondered if it was the work of aliens. "Something along the lines of the crop circles," Larry explained.

He decided to give it as a gift to his nature-loving grandma. "Oh! This is neat," she said with a smile when he offered it to her. "I can't believe it!"

During the years since then, we found countless creations and compliments. "It makes me feel great!" said one woman. "It makes you happy!," said another. "That's fantastic," said one man. "It reminds you to slow down," said another. "And appreciate nature."

What we didn't find was who was responsible. Until I received a text from a man named Bruce.

He had been metal-detecting in Beacon Hill Park. Instead of looking down for treasure, he just happened to look up in a tree. He sent me a photo of who he saw. High above the trail, surrounded by branches hung with woven orbs, was Tori.

Tori graciously agreed to an interview. When I asked if he was a wood elf, he answered 'no' with an infectious giggle.

Tori says he was once a volunteer. He helped remove invasive English ivy from Beacon Hill Park. "I found myself, all of a sudden, after pulling [the ivy], twisting it," Tori explains.

He says it felt so unexpectedly good that after his shift he started twisting the vines into shapes. "I was making peace signs for about a year," he says, before confirming he'd never done weaving before.

Tori says he started throwing them in trees, because he didn't know what else to do with them. Then one day he noticed a spider spinning its web. "A light bulb went off in my head," Tori recalls, before saying to himself, "I'm going to make a giant spider web between two trees!"

He constructed it along Victoria's Dallas Road waterfront for Halloween. That was followed by large letters woven between the trunks spelling 'love'. Tori later discovered that if you stretched and flattened his spheres, they could be woven together in the shape of flower petals.

He showed me how he hangs his work. It's remarkable how quickly he can climb up a tree to hang them on a high branch. If the desired location is high, Tori uses really long sticks to hang his creations.

Tori says all of his weavings are created to inspire wonder. "I like the idea that you're going for your walk and all of a sudden you see it," he explains. "Your troubles in your day are gone because you're thinking, 'What in the world?'"

And your mood is magically improved, not by elves but by a fellow human who possesses the power to transform the invasive into the artistic.

"I like to think I'm making a good thing out of a bad thing," Tori says sincerely, before smiling and giggling. "Not taking that from Martha Stewart or anything."