Full Moon November 7, 2022
Moon Over Apothecary Shed
December 7, 2022
blog business, photography, who knows apothecary shed, full moon Leave a comment
Introducing ApothecaryCloud
January 20, 2013
administrivia, blog business Leave a comment
Things went so well over at noplasticshowers after I tagged and bagged all the posts that I thought I might just do the same thing here. Without further ado, a bunch of categories (screen right) and a tag cloud. You can click on the live one over there, but not the fake one below!
ApothecaryCloud as seen 1.20.13
Parking at CSS
January 19, 2013
administrivia, blog business coal stove sink Leave a comment
Here’s how to park behind the house at Coal Stove Sink. When you drive across the bridge over Wheat Spring Branch, go left at the fork in the driveway. Then turn off into the yard as shown. Go right past the baby sycamore tree, up the hill, and follow the gravel to the barn. Park there.
How to park by the barn at Coal Stove Sink.
—-[canned directions]—-
Our place is on the Shenandoah river at 754 Castleman Road, Berryville, VA 22611 around 60 miles from Washington (NOTE that some GPS systems have the house in the wrong location.)
Directions: From DC, get on the Dulles Toll Road (267 West). Then Take the Dulles Greenway Toll road (267) to Leesburg. Get on Route 7 West bypass and go past Leesburg, past Purcellville, and over the Blue Ridge mountain (20 miles). Just after you cross the Shenandoah river on the big bridge, take the first right on route 603 (castleman road).
Castleman winds down by the river. When the road veers back away from the river to the left, our house is the first on the right.
Hey, You, Look Over There
January 3, 2013
administrivia, blog business, music bitter liberals Leave a comment
The Bitter Liberals have their own website now.
Thank you for surfing apothecaryshed
Scorpions, Dead Birds, and Random Powders
February 18, 2012
administrivia, blog business, nature scorpion Leave a comment
More loot for the apothecary shed collection from NH. It is important to have a scorpion.
Here’s what the desk looks like mid-winter.
Samples collected for identification by the resident science team.
Solstice party map
December 15, 2011
administrivia, blog business solstice 2 Comments
A few party iterations ago (6? 7?), we started asking everyone to park in the field across the creek and walk across the rope bridge to the party. Please don’t park along the road as the authorities frown on that. Enter the field from Castleman Road where the yellow arrow is (not the driveway where the red do not enter thing is).
Enter parking field at yellow arrow gate. Park, then walk across the rope bridge.
—-[canned directions]—-
Our place is on the Shenandoah river at 754 Castleman Road, Berryville, VA 22611 around 60 miles from Washington (NOTE that most GPS systems and google maps have the house in the wrong location.)
Directions: From DC, get on the Dulles Toll Road (267 West). Then Take the Dulles Greenway Toll road (267) to Leesburg. Get on Route 7 West bypass and go past Leesburg, past Purcellville, and over the Blue Ridge mountain (20 miles). Just after you cross the Shenandoah river on the big bridge, take the first right on route 603 (castleman road).
Castleman winds down by the river. When the road veers back away from the river to the left, our house is the first on the right.
Apothecary Solstice
December 14, 2011
blog business solstice Leave a comment
The apothecary shed has gotten into the solstice spirit. Here is a preview of what you’ll see around here on Saturday night during the annual frozen solstice party…other than the huge bonfire of course.
Even the bridge is into the act.
Chernobyl, Verizon red alerts, and well-armed liberals
November 26, 2011
art, blog business, guns, humor chernobyl, jackie, marcus, verizon Leave a comment
Marcus goes to Chernobyl. Read about it here http://www.ranum.com/fun/projects/chernobyl/. I was reminded of the Polidori exhibit on Chernobyl (zones of exclusion) that I saw at the Tate a few years ago or maybe it was in Montreal. Human insignificance shines through Polidori’s work in the form of dissolving cities.
Meanwhile, the safety situation here in the United States could not be more different. Some hourly Verizon guys in trucks asked permission to park in our driveway to check a nearby pole. We thought it was great when they set out orange safety cones in case the traffic on our driveway became confused. As if the yellow flashing lights were not enough…
Safety cones in the driveway. I bet their supervisor makes her kids wear bike helmets.
We spent the afternoon blowing as many clay pigeons as we could out of mid air. Jack is a good shot. Fits right in with the rest of us well-armed liberals.
Firewood and Pig Poop
November 6, 2011
blog business, nature wood 1 Comment
Life at Apothecary Shed is not always a bed of roses and formaldehyde. After staying up way too late with some visitors at Coal Stove Sink on Friday (4am?), it was up in the morning to split wood. Our fence recombobulation project this summer resulted in a huge pile of large cherry and locust logs too big to burn in the fireplace. So we rented a splitter from True Value (a whopper packing 2 tons of hydraulic pressure). Saturday was spent moving the same log multiple times. Must have split 5 cords (and moved 13).
Tote that barge, split that wood, stack it in the shed.
Sunday involved moving more wood, finishing up the solstice bonfire (save the date: December 17th), and attempting to clean out the pig pen. Our well meaning animal sitter threw about 4 bales of hay at our pigs (Berlusconi and Sarkozy) in June, resulting in a very wet, absolutely disgusting mix of wet hay, pig poop, and mud in just about equal parts. It’s so heavy that shoveling is not an option. We removed a panel from the pen and got the tractor in there this evening. Still pretty much a mess.
Five weeks and six days until the solstice fire is lit. Here it is in all of its idyllic Fall glory.
The weather was absolutely perfect.
Syntax error on line 0
October 11, 2011
administrivia, blog business Leave a comment
The apothecary shed is a place to do science, identify some plants, make some concoctions, and generally think about life, the universe and everything. There are a bunch of us here who may or may not contribute to this blog. Perhaps we’ll talk about guests in the adjoining Coal Stove Sink complex. Or maybe we’ll discuss mushroom identification. We’ll just have to see.
The apothecary shed and its adjoining mushroom ring.
The shed is yellow with purple trim. It has a porch with a picnic table. Inside, we’ve amassed a collection of nature items, specimens, notes, bones, and beakers.
The work table.
Some of the specimens we have piled up.
