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It all started small enough: On January 23, Michelle Schile showed up at her regular smoking rock to discover that it had been piled with a small arrangement of mud and manure.

Then, just to make clear that the offering wasn’t an accident, it was topped with an artfully placed sprig of fir.

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“Now I understand smoking is a dirty habit, but someone felt it was their duty to send me a message in this way,” wrote Schile in a Facebook post describing the incident.

Photo by Michelle Schile

An employee at the nearby Lochside Elementary School, Schile had spent 15 years taking her smoke breaks at the non-descript rock.

She chose the rock because it’s positioned behind a stand of trees that hides her habit from the children. It’s also one of the few places left in Victoria where it’s legal to smoke.

Smoking is banned in virtually all public places, including in parks, on bike trails and within seven metres of a doorway, window or air intake. Schile cannot smoke in her car, because it is parked on school property. The rock qualifies only because it’s along a multi-use trail that is technically still rated as a roadway — and Schile even took the time to confirm as much with municipal authorities.