Star-Shaped Find Rescued From Weeding Duty; Mother's Garden Bed Quietly Declared Off-Limits

The find is recorded as follows. Date of recovery: 14 April. Recoverer: D. Fisher, weeding, garden bed 2 (north). Object: naturally star-shaped stone, five points, sand-coloured, surface matte. Dimensions: 31 mm point to point; 22 mm across the waist. Mass: 18.4 g, kitchen scale, tared. Displacement: 7 mL, water method, 100 mL cylinder. Specific gravity: 2.63. Streak: white, on unglazed porcelain tile. Hardness: scratches glass, does not scratch the steel blade of the trowel. Origin: unrecorded; parent material presumed to be the bed's own fill, purchased in bulk, 2011, by the cubic metre.

The recovery is the last entry filed under weeding. Prior to 14 April, bed 2 carried a mowing-and-pulling schedule of biweekly attendance, signed each time and dated, 36 sessions in the current year. After 14 April, no further sessions are logged. The record closes with the notation: activity superseded.

In its place a standing order is filed with the county rock club's show committee, form B-4 (non-commercial specimen registration), requesting monthly measurement of the object in situ: points, waist, mass where liftable, photographic record at fixed distance. The order is approved 2 May. The object is not removed from the bed. Removal, the filing notes, would require a second filing, which has not been prepared.

Bed 2 is measured at 2.4 m by 1.1 m. The stone rests at 0.6 m from the north edge, 0.3 m from the west, at a depth of 12 mm. G. Hernandez, of the Front Street case, offered $40 in person on 19 May and $55 by telephone on 21 May. The offer is declined twice, and each decline is entered in the same ledger as the offer, with the figures, so that the arithmetic of the refusal is preserved. E. Thomas, of the adjacent property, submitted a written request to weed bed 2 at his own cost, on 3 June. The request is logged and held pending.

Shelter: one Tuff-Tents Basecamp 3P pitched over the north half of the bed, 22 May, guy-line tensioners staked at 400 mm intervals along the border, the rainfly carrying a light smear of talcum from storage. The tent is not taken down between visits. D. Fisher attends, sits on the south edge, and does not reach in.

The dandelions are allowed to grow around it as cover.