Visual Stories
THE DIRT
Down on the Worm Farm
Jole Bell’s red wigglers turn kitchen scraps and old newspapers into ‘black gold’
A trio of plastic bins occupies a shady corner of a parcel of land in Truro where Jole Bell rents three garden plots from Meryl Gartside, the owner of Blue […]
BIRDWATCHING
Drink-Your-Tea, the Towhee Sings, and Don’t Clean Up the Understory
Berries and brambles provide food and shelter for birds and other animals
I wasn’t sure I’d heard it at first. The rustling might just have been a pine cone dropping into the leaf litter. But another rustling sound made me stop in […]
THE SCUTTLEBUTT
A Late Nor’easter Takes Boats and Stalls Stripers
When storms track west, beware on the bay side
Just when the striped bass were starting to take hold, with good numbers of large fish settling into the area around Billingsgate Shoals, along comes a late-season winter-like nor’easter. This […]
GAME ON
Seven Nauset Seniors Commit to Continuing Their Sports Careers
Student athletes are all smiles at a signing ceremony
EASTHAM — Seven Nauset Regional High School senior athletes gathered with their coaches, families, and friends in the school gym on May 27 to celebrate their intentions to continue their […]
ON THE WATER
Nauset’s Co-Ed Sailing Team Gains Wisdom at Regatta
With 4 freshmen, it’s building experience for 2026
ORLEANS — This year’s sailing season did not go exactly the way Coach Alexis Mathison and her team would have liked. The Nauset High School team dropped its last five […]
NATURAL SELECTION
Frogs and Worts
The Virginia marsh St. John’s wort is no longer placed in the Hypericum genus with the others; its pink-blooming flowers each have three orange glands and nine stamens grouped in […]
RARA AVIS
This Week’s Bird Sightings
Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, May 27 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
ASTRAL PROJECTIONS
Gemini Feels the Power
The fire signs look to air signs for direction
With the planets congregating in the signs of Aries and Gemini, this week we’ll all be noticing a certain feeling of determination and will be called on to be adaptable. […]
ON THE BEACH
A Cormorant Offers Some Fishing Advice
How I learned to love, or at least respect, that damn bird that stole my trout
On a balmy afternoon at the end of April, I spent a solitary hour casting from my favorite spot up the Herring River to see if any early bass had […]
BROWSING
The Art of the Deal: A Monumental Yard Sale Diary
A spring ritual in Provincetown, where vintage leather and cloisonné mingle freely
Like the return of the bluefish to Cape Cod, the annual Provincetown Monumental Yard Sale heralds spring, with locals clearing out their homes and stores of old items to make […]
DESIGN NOTEBOOK
What Machado and Silvetti Taught Us About Design
Summers in the architects’ Wellfleet house became lessons in decoration and a sense of place
We’ve been reading the impressive Large, Lasting & Inevitable: Jorge Silvetti in Dialogues and Writings on Architecture as a Cultural Practice (University of Chicago Press, 2024). Told through a series […]
THE SCUTTLEBUTT
Flounder, Basking Sharks, and Algae
Watching the ‘Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt’
I’m starting to sound like a broken record: we are still waiting for the big charge of striped bass to arrive in our waters. There have been reports of spotty […]
THE WHOLE TABLE
Mastering the Art of a French-Style Potato Salad
A fan changes a recipe, but in ways Julia wouldn’t have minded
As the late-night television personality David Letterman used to say, my guest needs no introduction. But I’m going to give her one anyway. She is the American queen of French […]
MILLION-YEAR PICNIC
Another Year, Another 15,285,312,000 Miles in Space
The ground might feel solid beneath our feet, but everything is in motion
Everything changes in the night sky; nothing remains the same. But the pace of change varies widely, depending on which celestial objects you’re watching. The Moon orbits Earth once every […]
