Taking painted rocks on holiday

[Rolle]

I recently went on holiday to Centre Parcs and am still in the facebook group for that particular location. I've seen numerous posts from people about to arrive, showing off the 100+ painted rocks they have prepared and will be hiding around the park during their holiday.

We didn't have room in our car for a spare gnats nadger, I can't imagine the look on DHs face if I went "ah, just the rocks to squeeze in".

I guess on the positive, it's a free activity for others to do at CP, where it feels like if they could charge you for farting whilst on the park they would. And it doesn't do anyone any harm. But I just don't understand the compulsion to paint hundreds of rocks and hide them around. I can be a miserable c**t though, so maybe it's that!

There are lots around Great Malvern. Found one on the beacon on the hills last week. It was lovely. I doubt the paint peeling from a rock is going to cause the end of civilisation.

The ones in our village have provided a source of community spirit, fun for the younger children (especially during lockdown) and something nice for people to do (young and old).
Some of you are acting like people are leaving used needle around.
We have a trail of them on a path near me. It's got longer and longer.
Sure, they're not 'natural' but then nor is the paint used on the bench or the post box, or the play equipment. I can't even begin to think of the fuel used to carve the ancient, dead horse chestnut that has now become a bunch of stepping stone.

The woods behind me started filling up with these things over lockdown; it just sticks out as an obvious garish man-made “something” that’s incongruous with natural settings.

It mainly draws the eye as it looks like rubbish, which of course it is.

It didn’t really offend me, but it’s definitely not in the same category as a sculpture park or intricate carving for the pp who drew that analogy 🤣🤣

Taking painted rocks on holiday

Have to say there are times when I wonder if there are any uninhabited islands for sale I can retreat to and not have to know stuff like this is a thing.

YANBU. I can't stand this 'painted rocks' wankery tbh. Maybe I a miserable c**t as well! 😂 A year or two ago, there were DOZENS around where I live. All over walls, ledges, windowsills etc. I think it's naff. JMHO!

Have you been living under a rock?

Hahaha. Same.

I think I’m living under a huge one, obviously 🤣🤣

Smile stones have been around way before tik tok.

Pass a pebble is quite a big thing where I'm from......I've taken pebbles I've found (( kids ones )) on holiday and posted the photo in the group. It's only a bit of fun, I wouldnt take hundreds I've painted myself tho !

We went to the Tomb of the Kings recently and there was cairn upon cairn built all over the site. They were even inside the tomb carvings and one large mound was completely covered in them. This is a 2500 year old site that people want to ruin the look of by leaving their own crappy piled up rocks all over it. I took as many down as I could particularly the ones close to the tombs, I couldn't make a dent on the mound though as there were just so many.

And pass a pebble has been going for years, way before tiktok. Where I'm from it's also used to raise money for charity

I don’t mind them so much in the urban environment. I have seen them left on the steps of holiday cottages presumably by guests staying there. My late DM during COVID found one one her doorstep as did the other elderly residents in the block of flats where she lived. It said ‘be grateful’ on it she was very annoyed by this for some reason! Wanted to know who left it there and why. It was difficult to explain this craze to her. She definitely wasn’t grateful for that rock ha ha!

Wow - people have been building cairns for eons - why would you think you had the right to remove them?

The History of Rock Cairns
Rock cairns have appeared countless times throughout history. The name originates from a Gaelic term that means “heap of stones.” It was likely first coined by Scots who used them to mark trails across grass-covered, hilly landscapes. In the Andes Mountains and Mongolia, rock cairns were used to mark routes to safety, to food, and to villages. Early Norse sailors used them to mark the land, long before lighthouses came into use. Other groups used them to mark gravesites, for ceremonial purposes, or even to hide caches of food supplies.

And I dont think I have ever watched anything on tiktok

@WinkOnlyCellophane I use acrylics and then yaght varnish

@Choconut surely whoever is responsible for care and maintenance of The Tomb of the King's would stop people doing it if they didn't want it to happen.

Agree with you there @Choconut I have seen them built all over beautiful beaches as well. Also they look like health and safety nightmare if they were to topple onto a child.

Be grateful? 😂. If I'd got one of them and found out where it came from, I'd launch it through the gobshite's window.
What sort of self important muppet leaves painted stones on people's doorsteps exhorting them to feel anything at all, let alone grateful during a pandemic?!

My daughter and i painted rocks in our garden when we were both furloughed. When we moved house we brought them with us, we did it just for us definitely didnt leave any in the countryside. Was just a bit of fun to do when the world was closed !

I like them. My little boys scout group did them. I know nothing about TikTok! Don't they bring a smile to most peoples faces? I know they do to mine.

But is it a painted one.

no NO NO rocks should not be painted neither should they have crochet cozies.... these people are EVIL and probably do macrame in their spare time RUN RUN FOR THE HILLS

That sounds fine.

It's the equivalent of putting brightly coloured gnomes in your garden (if that's what you're into). You wouldn't chuck them all over the countryside and expect people to be entranced by it!

Thank you for calling them stones They are stones or pebbles.

Hang on, do people leave the painted rocks where they find them? Here people briing them home if they come across them.

They made a snake of painted rocks all through our park and then some teenagers came and kicked them all over and it was a complete mess! The park keeper collected up any he could find and encouraged people to paint even more and concreted them up the path, literally 100s. There's a local group on Facebook and they are all completely obsessed and share their creations excessively. They are mainly women in their 50's!