Wednesday, March 25, 2015

A Most Surprising Encounter: The Beginning of the End of The Case of the Lady Slipper Stalker

[This is the Beginning of the End of The Case of the Lady Slipper Stalker. See also Parts OneTwoThreeFourFour-and-a-HalfFour-and-Three-QuartersSuggestions for My Dear ReadersA Note from Mrs HudsonFive,  A Plea For HelpSix, SevenSeven-and-a HalfSeven-and-Three-QuartersEightA Most Ingenious TheoryNine, Ten, and Ten-and-a-Half.]
The Photo in Question

My Dear, Dear Readers, I am pleased to announce that I have finally, and most unexpectedly, discovered the true identity of the Lady Slipper Stalker

Ever since the 28th of August in 2014, I have been trying to uncover the identity of the person who placed the Photo in Question on the windshield of my vehicle. 

When I am at home in the Hudson House Flats on Candlestickmaker Lane, I park my trusty Subaru, with its Showy Lady Slipper Critical Habitat License Plate, in the garage. There are 36 flats in Hudson House, and although most denizens of that shabby-genteel establishment only stay for a few years, there are about a dozen of us who have lived in this building for more than a decade. While I can't keep track of all the short-timers, I am at least somewhat acquainted with several of the long-term inmates. We chat briefly when we pass each other in the hallways or on the stairs. We make small talk when we take in the mail or encounter each other in the laundry facilities or in the aforementioned garage. 

Back in September, when I wrote Part One of this saga, I was quick to assume that the Lady Slipper Stalker must be someone I knew rather well, someone who knew of my obsession with our native cypripedia. I was swift to suspect my friends, my colleagues, and my current and former pupils, for they all know of my floral fascination. I have never mentioned my orchid-mania to any of my neighbors, and even those with whom I chat on a somewhat regular basis know nothing of my love for wildflowers and orchids ... until today, that is.
The Conspicuous License Plate

At approximately 3:58 pm today, I parked my vehicle in my garage space, and as I was getting a bag of groceries from the back seat, one of my neighbors, a Ms Moyer, was walking towards her car. Ms Moyer and I have spoken only briefly to each other on a very few occasions, usually to commiserate about the sad state of the laundry facilities at Hudson House. (I am sorry, Mrs Hudson, but it's true--they are in desperate need of refurbishment!) Today, however, Ms Moyer stopped and pointed at my apparently Conspicuous Licence Plate. 

"I haven't seen you since last summer," she said, "when I noticed your license plate and thought you might like a photo of a Lady Slipper!"

"You put that photo on my car?" I asked, in utter surprise.

"Yes, I thought you might like it because of your license plate."

"Well, well," I spluttered in shock, "Thank you!" 

Stunned by this revelation, I could barely speak, but I managed to ask one question before she moved on towards her car. "Where did you take the photo?"

"Jay Cooke," she said. "It's not an obvious spot."

"I'm very familiar with that exact spot," I interjected, "I take a lot of photos of Lady Slippers."

"Well, there you go!" She said and got into her car and drove off. 

I stood there stunned and shocked for a few minutes before I gathered my things and proceeded to my flat. What a curious coincidence! And what a relief to know, finally, the identity of the Stalker. I feel much safer now, knowing that it was the mildly-eccentric but harmless Ms Moyer who placed the Photo in Question on my vehicle. I am also pleased to know that I have like-minded neighbors. (Yes, I include myself in the "mildly-eccentric but harmless" category!) 

I must admit, however, that I had hoped for a more dramatic conclusion to this long investigation, but all too often the truth we seek is mundane and familiar, rather than exciting and exotic...

Of course, Dear Readers, we still have some Unfinished Business: there are yet several unsolved orchid-related conundrums for which Ms Moyer could not be responsible. After all, she doesn't even know where I work! Thus, I am left with the following questions:

1. Who put the Charming Book under my windshield wiper?

2. Who taped the Photoshopped Image to my mailbox?

3. Who put the Coloring Book & the Coded Message on my car?

4. Who left the Confusing Miscellany, consisting of the Sizable Chunk of Amethyst, the Romance Novel, the Rubber Ducky, the Volume of Sudoku, the Ceramic Figurine, and the Strangely-Punctuated Rhyming Quatrain, on my car? (I suspect several people here...)

5. Who left the Unobtrusive Magnet, the Postal Card, and the Delicate Creation in my classroom? (I suspect at least 2 people in this instance, if not 3.)

6. Who is/are the Ghostly Anonymous Commenter(s) whose eloquence has so haunted me? (See the comments to this post and this one.)

Remember, Dear Readers, that Ms Ball confessed to placing the Advertisement on my car and the Curious Gift in my classroom; Mr Diener (who, alas, can no longer be considered Prime Suspect #1) confessed to putting the Orchid Poster in the hallway, and young Thomaz N was exposed as a copy-cat. 

If, my Dear Readers, you have any information to contribute, please let me know in the comments! I look forward to a refreshing bout of honesty!

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Seniors, Read This!

["Read This" is a series of short posts containing links to good articles that I think my students need to read. If you come across an article that you think should be included in this series, let me know!]

Some of you are starting to work on your Capstone Projects, and many of you are now starting to think about how your lives may/will change in the near future, so I think you should read this.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Gearing Up For Wildflower Season

Phone with lanyard attachment (photo by Blake G)
As the mornings get brighter and the days get a tad warmer (it should get into the 50s this week), I'm starting to gear up for the wildflower season. And I mean "gear" quite literally. Over the winter, I've been assembling the tools and equipment I'll need to improve my wildflower photography and orchid-hunting skills. 

The flower-season strap (photo by
Blake G)
My most important piece of equipment is my phone, because it's also my only camera. I don't use a case because I often attach a macro (close-up) lens to my phone; but I do worry about dropping it, as I'm often balancing in precarious situations or leaning over water to get good shots. Several years ago, I found a way to attach a lanyard to my case-less phone. I use a product made by the Poddities company to attach a wrist-strap, one for winter and one for flower season. I just switched to my flower-season strap, which is longer and sturdier. Because I rely on this strap so much, the little screws that hold the netsuke to the phone occasionally work themselves out and need replacing. I recently ordered several sets of the teeny-tiny screws (and I have a special screwdriver for them).
From L to R: my macro lens, the doo-hickey that attaches
the lens to the phone, the slip-on polarizing filter, & the
little plastic case for the lens & filter.
 


I sometimes use a monopod when I'm taking photos (tripods, even small ones, are too damaging to nearby vegetation, and I find that a monopod allows me to shoot from a greater range of angles much more quickly than a tripod). 

I rely on a slip-on circular polarizing filter to tone down intense sunlight. I've found that sunlight is, in fact, my greatest enemy, and the best days for taking flower photos are the overcast days, especially when there's lots of humidity--the soft light and the moisture in the air make the colors glow.

I am considering getting a bluetooth-enabled remote shutter device which will allow me to snap a photo while I use my monopod to get the phone closer to a flower I can't reach. (With such a set-up, I might finally be able to get a good photo of the Dragon's Mouth Orchid in the Lake Bemidji State Park Bog.) Ms Durant has one, and she's going to let me try it out. 

Lately, I've been teaching myself how to use my phone as a GPS mapping tool with an app called Offline Topo Maps. It uses the GPS chip in my phone to track my progress on toptographical maps that I download onto my phone. I can leave markers, or waypoints, wherever I want (where I park my car, where certain flowers bloom, etc), and it will help me get to those spots and back again. This will be incredibly helpful when I go back into the Pennginton Bog, where there are no trails to follow, and where I could get lost. In my previous trips into the Bog, I've stayed pretty much in sight of my car, or at least where I could still hear traffic going by, and this has limited my exploration terribly. With this app, I've been marking the locations of a few plants/flowers on the Munger Trail. I can upload the waypoints to Google Earth and then save them on my laptop.
Screenshot of my waypoints on Google Earth. I marked the location of some Bottle Gentians,
Wild Asparagus, two clumps of Yellow Lady Slippers, and a Wild Clematis vine.
It's taken me a couple hikes to learn how to use the app, and I still haven't mastered it completely. 
Screenshot of the GPS app on
my phone; the gold arrow marks
my progress towards a way-
point I marked on a previous
hike.
I still don't really understand how to read GPS coordinates, so I'm just guessing my way through it. But sometimes, that's how you learn things! I hope to map all my favorite plant-spots on the Munger Trail in the next few weeks. 


I knew that the GPS app would drain my phone's battery pretty quickly, so I've started using a small external battery pack along with it. Now I also don't have to worry about running out of juice when I'm out all day taking photos.
External Battery Pack: as small as a
granola bar & about twice as heavy.

Part of gearing up for the season means stocking up on insect repellent (I'm more concerned with ticks than mosquitoes, and I visit TickEncounter.org for advice about the best repellent to get). Apparently, ticks don't like crawling up smooth, slippery surfaces, like rubber boots, so I got a pair last year that reach almost to my knees. I also have a bug-suit (pants, jacket, and head-covering made of mosquito netting). Once last year, I was pretty much covered in ticks, and I was very grateful that I was wearing the bug-suit. I was walking around the area where the Ram's Head Lady Slipper is supposed to grow, and since finding that orchid is one of my goals for this year, I know I'll need to be well-protected against ticks when I go back there.
The boots
The pants
The head-net


I don't look forward to dealing with insects, but they're an unavoidable part of the orchid-hunting experience. I do like it when I see interesting insects, like the Flower Crab Spider I've written about before, and draagynflies dragonflies...

I don't think I've mentioned that one of my photos (of a dragonfly on a Showy Lady Slipper) was published in Orchids Magazine back in December. This is the second time one of my photos has been published there and the first time I've had a full-page spread. 
The hard copy of the magazine.
The American Orchid Society has a website where they post a "photo of the week," submitted by folks from all over the world to a Flickr group. From the photos in that group, photos are chosen for the AOS website (I think I've been chosen three times). From the "photos of the week" on the website, Orchids magazine chooses a bunch for inclusion in the December issue of the magazine. I was pretty thrilled when this happened.
Close-up of the page from the digital version of the magazine.

Another kind of "gear" I need is information: I've been combing through some DNR documents I've found online for clues as to where I might locate the Ram's Head and also the Stemless Slipper (which I have yet to see outside a State Park). 


Photo by Mrs Kosmatka.
I came across references to the Ram's Head Slipper in a DNR document about the Wawina area. There's a bog there I'd like to explore, especially since I pass through Wawina on my way to [X] bog. In the document was a list of plants in the area, along with some undefined initials that seemed like they might be useful. I took a screenshot of them and asked Mr Lockhart if he'd ever seen anything like that. He passed the screenshot on to his wife Audrey who works for the DNR, and she looked at it but couldn't tell me what the initials meant. I also asked Dr Carter and Ms Maas, but they didn't know, either. After doing some more searching, I've come to think they reference some measurement of moisture, nutrients, heat, and light.


I was hoping that "M N H L" stood for some kind of secret location data... Oh well, so it goes... I have come across information about the Ram's Head that makes reference to county map sections and grids, so I think I have to teach myself how to find and read those kinds of maps. Maybe my best shot at seeing a Ram's Head Slipper is to explore the Superior Hiking Trail in the neighborhood of Lismore Road, where Mr Johnson (US) claims to have seen one...

In any case, I'm trying to learn as much as I can before the season begins, and I'm gathering up all my resources, in hopes of a successful spring and summer of orchid hunting. I spend a lot of time with the DNR guide to SNA's. And as I wait for the world around me to turn green again, I play with running photos from last year through apps like Waterlogue.
Bed-time reading
One of my photos, edited with Waterlogue
 Note to seniors planning and working on their Capstone Projects: This is the kind of post you might include in your Capstone Blog. Your posts don't have to be quite this long (this is crazy-long!), but this is the kind of material you might include.

An Evidentiary Update: Part Ten-and-a-Half of The Case of the Lady Slipper Stalker

[This is Part Ten-and-a-Half of The Case of the Lady Slipper Stalker. See also Parts OneTwoThreeFourFour-and-a-HalfFour-and-Three-QuartersSuggestions for My Dear ReadersA Note from Mrs HudsonFive,  A Plea For HelpSix, SevenSeven-and-a HalfSeven-and-Three-QuartersEightA Most Ingenious TheoryNine, and Ten.]

The Unobtrusive Magnet
After a long winter of distractions and troubles, I have discovered, Dear Readers, two things: One, that I have neglected to inform you of a small collection of clues I have acquired since we last pondered together the curious incidents of The Case of the Lady Slipper Stalker; Two, that after being inactive during these cold, dark days, the Stalker seems to be waking up, like a bear coming out of hibernation (I know, bears don't really hibernate...). Perhaps we will catch our Suspect now! 

Back in early November, if memory serves, I discovered an Unobtrusive Magnet from the "Madison Orchid Growers Guild" in my room. (I think it was on my desk, but it may also have been placed on my doorframe--I can't quite remember.) I believe I discovered it shortly after Madame Greenan had been visiting family in the Land of Cheese (otherwise known as Wisconsin, of course). Madison, WI, is not all that far from here, and I'm sure there are many folks who make the journey to that great city quite frequently... I did a quick search for information about the Guild, and turned up one photo of some of its members. Perhaps someone in our community is acquainted with one of these orchid fanciers?
Potential Suspects?
If you, my Dear Readers, have any information to share about this clue, please do let me know in the comments below. 
Front of the Postal Card

Back of the Postal Card
Shortly thereafter, in the same week, I found a Postal Card in my mailbox. There was no message upon it, and no postmark, so it had not travelled through the postal system. It is an advertisement from a local florist, Angela's Bella Flora. I have no idea what this wordless message is meant to imply. I do wonder, however, if members of the Marshall School community are simply (and randomly) sending my way all orchid-related items they encounter, in an attempt to distract me from my search for the Stalker. Perhaps my suspicions regarding Mr Diener (Prime Suspect #1) were bringing me too close to the Truth, and my colleagues have banded together to shield him from scrutiny by showering me with orchidaceous miscellanea. 
The Delicate Creation, viewed from the side.
These items had receded into the past, nearly forgotten, until just this morning, Dear Readers, when I found in my mailbox a most Delicate Creation. It is, I believe, an example of the Japanese art of Origami. Now, I am quite aware that many teachers have their students learn origami, in Art and Math courses, perhaps also in others. I suspect such lessons are also rather popular in our Middle School.
The Delicate Creation, viewed
from the front.
The Delicate Creation, viewed
from the back












I will have to investigate this matter--perhaps I can find out if any instructors have ordered quantities of pink origami paper in recent months... Or perhaps the faculty Crafting Club has been involved. (I checked with Dr Larson about this, and she declares, with adamant certainty, that no member has engaged in paper-folding during the Club's meetings.) 

Once again, Dear Readers, I count on your support--if you know (or even suspect) anything that might assist me in my inquiries, please leave an informative comment below! Clearly, the Stalker feels ignored and wants my attention yet once again.