Painting rocks is a big thing here and many places in the USA. There are Facebook clubs for certain areas. Our county has one. The idea is to paint rocks and place them around town. Originally, they were supposed to be placed in parks and greenspaces as a way to get people out in nature but now people put them almost anywhere. Once you paint your rocks, you put photos on Facebook or at least mention how many rocks you have and where you will be hiding them. Like, I painted these 5 rocks today and I am going to place them at the city park off Main Street. You aren’t supposed to actually hide them — it’s not a scavenger hunt — but place them in slightly out of the way places or unusual, unexpected places. Each rock should reference your group’s Facebook page on the back. Whoever finds the rock is supposed to post the find, with a photo of the rock if possible, on that group’s Facebook page.

The first rock my granddaughter found was balanced on the leg of a picnic table at the soccer park where her brother played. We’d didn’t know about this rock craze and just looked up the Facebook page written on the back. Then we started painting and placing rocks. I even took two rocks to Manhattan last year and placed on in Riverside Park in the Upper West Side and one in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village.

Last time we visited our favorite getaway town near Orlando, we found 4 rocks in a park.

Some people paint rocks that are true works of art! Very elaborate. The first one we found was a wolf howling at the moon. My granddaughter and I never got that good at it. Ours were mostly abstract and colorful.

Before she left, my granddaughter painted dozens of rocks for my garden. I treasure every one.