The crowd is smaller than usual tonight, I’m told. Most weeks, twice as many people are eating and drinking and talking over the musicians playing in the corner near the […]
Visual Stories
MORNING FLIGHT
Breakfast With the Birds
Seeds and suet fuel migrant flocks and year-rounders
A couple of weeks ago, I felt a chill in the air, and I knew it was time. I drove to Orleans, purchased a 40-pound sack of sunflower seeds, and […]
ASTRAL PROJECTIONS
Watch What You’re Watching
A lot depends on where you focus your attention
There is much happening in the sky this week. The question is: where should we direct our attention? The Sun continues to square Mars and begins to square Pluto, while […]
REEL MUSIC
If You Give a Violinist a Fiddle
A community of musicians organizes ‘real music from the heart’
The crowd is smaller than usual tonight, I’m told. Most weeks, twice as many people are eating and drinking and talking over the musicians playing in the corner near the […]
COMFORT FOOD
Rosemary Soup by the Fire
A bowl of broth that’s a ‘surprise and delight’ feature for fall
Back when we rented our house out for summer weeks, we’d drive away with trepidation. There were problems — nothing terrible, but we knew we hadn’t plugged enough of the […]
FIXATION
Rewirings of Things Past
A mechanically minded artist builds assemblages by intuition
Jody Johnson is one of those rare people you can turn to when things fall apart. Last February, she was one of the stars of the Wellfleet Fix-It Clinic, saving […]
THE SCUTTLEBUTT
Right Whales Appear to Take a Detour
Aerial teams see the whales over deep canyons at the outlet of the Hudson River
Striped bass fishing has been outstanding this past week as solid catches were reported by the few boats that ventured out. Once again, the area between Race Point Station and […]
MORNING FLIGHT
Breakfast With the Birds
Seeds and suet fuel migrant flocks and year-rounders
A couple of weeks ago, I felt a chill in the air, and I knew it was time. I drove to Orleans, purchased a 40-pound sack of sunflower seeds, and […]
WARRIORS WATCH
Halfway Through Season, Nauset Soccer Teams Lead the League
Boys varsity qualifies for postseason; girls are well on their way
EASTHAM — Nauset High soccer has something of a reputation. The boys varsity won all 23 games in 2016, then did it again in 2018, when they finished third in […]
MIDDAY AT THE OASIS
A Constellation of Cottonsedge
After trudging over the blinding, desert-like mountains of sand that compose the first half of Provincetown’s grueling dune shack trail, a hiker then stumbling across the floating, twinkling hairballs […]
RARA AVIS
This Week’s Bird Sightings
Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, Oct. 8 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
ASTRAL PROJECTIONS
The Ups and Downs of Libra
Get ready for a rocky week
The week ahead may be a rocky one. Or maybe you’ll find it particularly rewarding. The way it goes for you might depend on your ability to let go of […]
ROAD TRIP
With Ishmael, on Johnny Cake Hill
In New Bedford, the whaling museum has history both ominous and hopeful
NEW BEDFORD — Herman Melville’s Ishmael certainly must have scuffed his soles on the cobblestones of Johnny Cake Hill. I know he arrived thinking “…whenever it is a damp, drizzly […]
ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY
How Puritan Beliefs Shaped Cape Cod’s Landscape
At John Doane’s Eastham home, evidence of rapid deforestation but no wild meat
EASTHAM — Somewhat surprisingly, given that Cape Cod is an enormous glacial sandpile, the first European settlers to build permanent homes on the Outer Cape were in search of dirt. […]
BACKYARD FARMER
Poultry and Their Politics
An amateur analysis of ‘chicken business’
It’s a hen-peck-hen world out there. By “out there,” I refer to the front garden of our house in Wellfleet, where our three hens are placidly sipping from a puddle. […]
