The fleeting joy of summer is something we wait for all year here on the Outer Cape and, yet, it is almost gone before we know it. Right now, August […]
Visual Stories
PLANTCRAFT
Plant Matter to Dye For
Mix solar rays and garden clippings for earthy fabric hues
Solar dyeing starts with a gathering: deadheaded blooms, freshly unfurled petals, bright green leaves. Dyer’s Coreopsis, Queen Anne’s lace, and Rudbeckia. My garden shears make quick work of the task. […]
GALLERY
Hustle and Flow
‘This Old’ new Eastham house is full of ideas
Collaboration among innovators, designers, builders, and television executives built the 2020 This Old House Idea House, the first of its kind on Cape Cod. It started with a design by […]
GALLERY
The Making of Two New Habitat Houses in Wellfleet
Handmade quilts, granite counters, neighbor-friendly porches, and teamwork make houses into homes for two families
The July 21 dedication ceremony for two new Cape Cod Habitat for Humanity homes in Wellfleet was virtual, but still celebratory, marking the culmination of a construction effort that started […]
BEEKEEPING
Bee Yard Basics
What your neighbor’s boxes, stones, smoke, and other gear are all about
Deep into summer, beekeeping on the Outer Cape is mostly a waiting game. The queen has been laying since April; the hive population is perhaps 60,000. Though we’re in a […]
KITCHEN TABLE
How to Make a Fish Face
A landlocked Okie ventures beyond fish fingers
Growing up in Oklahoma I could never have imagined eating a fish with the head still on. Like most Americans in landlocked states, when I was a kid, I expected […]
CROSSWORD #12
Race to the Finish
The July puzzle from Sophia Maymudes. Need some answers? We send out the solution in our Friday newsletter. You’ll find the signup for our newsletter right here on our home […]
OUTER CAPE PORTRAIT
Just One Novel
CLEMENTINE VALTZ / STUDENT & WRITER / WELLFLEET Clementine Valtz decided, as a junior, to apply to college. If accepted, she would skip her senior year at Nauset Regional High […]
BASEBALL
Dan Okrent Is the Father of Fantasy
The inventor of Rotisserie League Baseball on its strange legacy
Major League Baseball (MLB) returned to play last week with no fans in the ballparks but plenty of people watching on TV from their living room couches. Some of those […]
NAVIGATING BY THE STARS
Will a Full Moon in Aquarius Help Love Steer the Stars?
Leo’s ‘look at me’ energy gets some groovy opposition
Every 29½ days, the Moon goes full in the sign directly opposite the Sun, currently in Leo. Full Moons are an exercise in self-examination and this full Moon, in Aquarius, […]
RARA AVIS
This Week’s Bird Sightings
Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, July 28, included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
MOVEMENT
The Power of Being in the Water
You don’t have to master the crawl to reap the benefits of a ‘blue mind’
While plenty of people here are devoted to daily swims, I meet many who haven’t gone in the water for years. They’re too busy. They think it’s a vacation thing, […]
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Life on Sally’s Way, 7 Years Later
Amid an ongoing debate about housing, this Truro project stands out
TRURO — Janice Sommers and Janice Walk have called Sally’s Way home from its beginnings — going back to 2012 when Truro’s long-awaited affordable housing development was just a sandy […]
WHILE I WAS SLEEPING
A Jersey Kid in Wellfleet
How to know when you are home
Legendary music agent Elliot Roberts, who died a little more than a year ago, was the best kind of friend, wickedly funny, warm and engaged, and always with the most […]
SQUID INK
Summertime and the Jigging Is Easy
When the squid come in, wonder, respect, beer, the grill
WELLFLEET — I parked at Newcomb’s, front row for a surf check, and had not yet left the car when my friend Al walked over, rubbing the head of his […]
