To be annoyed about her collecting the stones?

[forestblade]

I thought there was an unwritten rule that if you found a stone someone had painted you would pick it up and hide it somewhere else for someone else to find on their walk etc.

My SM now has a collection of painted stones she's found and leaves on her doorstep. I was round the other day and noticed the collection had grown somewhat and was quite surprised and then annoyed. She doesn't paint stones and leave them for others herself, just collects everyone elses!

AIBU??

Can you explain why it's worse for nature than painting a fence or using cobbles in a path?

People don't go to forests or to beaches and paint fences. They do it on their own property. People aren't hiding painted stones in their own gardens.

A few years ago someone tied CDs on string and put them in trees along with chiffon fabric high in trees in some woods where I walk. It didn't look great when it first happened but now every time I walk in those woods I see raggedy dirty purple chiffon and jagged broken CDs instead of just being able to enjoy the actual trees.

Yep, if you're doing some kind of art installation in nature, it ought to be with permission of the land-owner and with a time limit where you go back and clear it away.

People get the right hump about graffiti and tagging (which, personally, I quite like in urban areas, but I probably wouldn't if it was on my own property without permission), yet this sort of thing we're supposed to smile at?

It's fine in the built environment, but it's just a form of littering and inappropriate in the countryside/nature.

Yarnbombers, rock painters, cd tree hangers, all very annoying in beautiful rural areas.

A friend of mine who paints rocks always puts a notice on Facebook that she has put some out and will often name the trail. She says keep or move it somewhere or just look at it and smile. She doesn't mind if people take them home as she'll just paint more.

Last time I visited the Angel of the North, the nearby woodland had so much sentimental tat hanging from trees that it looked exactly like the landscapes downwind of landfill sites , polluted by windblown plastic.
A couple of my local beauty spots are also being undermined by people who decide to nail various things to trees. Birdboxes, plaques to remember family members who have died, artificial flowers. I sympathise with the bereavements that may have led to these gestures, but I feel angry that over the last decade or so a trend has developed in which anyone feels that they have a right to add yet more human intrusion into nature in order to express and validate their private feelings.
Grief, kindness, playfulness. All extremely respectable and valuable states of mind in themselves, but once coupled with this growing sense of entitlement they just generate impositions. On nature and on other people. Stop it!!!

I like yarnbombers and the crocheted postbox tops, but I must admit I have only seen them in urban settings, never in the countryside.

I live on the coast and there are a lot of memorial benches along the seafront. There is a big notice asking people not to leave artificial flowers or ornaments on the benches. Some of the benches used to get festooned with bunting, flowers, candles etc and I can understand it's a way to honour the deceased, but it looks tatty in no time.