In the summer, the speckled alder, Alnus incana, hides in plain sight along the Beech Forest trail in Provincetown; its leaves look almost identical to those of Fagus grandifolia. This […]
Visual Stories
ONE FINE DAY
Career Celebration
ASTRAL PROJECTIONS
The Past Is Prologue
Progress may need some lessons from history
With Aries season warming up, it’s time to start making some decisions and planning for the future, with emphasis on planning. There are some big shifts happening in the cosmos […]
THIS WILD CAPE
The Return of the Peepers, Wood Frogs, and Salamanders
Listening (and looking) for the emergence of spring amphibians
It’s early spring, round about mid-March, when, as the Earth makes its way around the Sun, those of us in the Northern Hemisphere notice we’re receiving more sunlight as each […]
THE WHOLE TABLE
The Mighty Sweet Potato
A tuber that’s not really a potato satisfies, especially with a little butter and salt
I have always had, and probably always will have, a great love for a particular type of tuber: the sweet potato. This root crop fights for the top spot on […]
GRAVEYARD SHIFT
Rye and Ransoms and Eastham Mariners in the War of 1812
A stirring tale of the time Captains Mayo and Knowles ran the blockade
Twenty years after the Revolutionary War had crippled Cape Cod’s economy, as prosperity was slowly returning, another hardship befell its residents. The U.S. was neutral in the Napoleonic Wars, but […]
THE SCUTTLEBUTT
So You Want to Be a Boat Owner
While rewiring and barnacle scraping, a captain feels the pain and recalls the pleasures of a day on the water
With the summer fast approaching, the vibe on the waterfront and in marinas Cape-wide is high energy. Everywhere you hear the whine of disc sanders, the hum of air-compressed paint […]
MILLION-YEAR PICNIC
The Elements of Better Worlds
In supernovas and celestial beginnings, imagining places to look up to
Cartoon villains run the country, and the world is turned upside down. Right is wrong, wrong is right, and America slips backward down the hard-fought mountain of social progress. So […]
LEARNING
Nauset Juniors and Seniors Polish Their Portfolios
Members of an honors class put their creative selves on view
WELLFLEET — Three vivid works by Nauset Regional High School senior Lily Cianfaglione are on display at Wellfleet Preservation Hall: a painting with gouache, a drawing done with colored pencils, […]
NATURAL SELECTION
The Grandeur of the Beech, for Now
Within Fagus grandifolia, the American beech tree, as the millennia-old processes of spring try to get under way, an unwelcome guest is disrupting things. The nematode that causes the new […]
RARA AVIS
This Week’s Bird Sightings
Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, March 18 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
ASTRAL PROJECTIONS
The Astrological New Year
Look back on your resolutions and reinvigorate your hopes
I don’t love New Year’s resolutions. But if you made any, now’s the time to ask: have you stuck with them? If you have, kudos to you, but for the […]
AQUACULTURE
Time to Wake the Oysters
With days ever so slightly warmer, farmers return bags of bivalves to the water
WELLFLEET — Oysters don’t hibernate, but when winter sets in and water temperatures dip below 48 degrees Fahrenheit, they enter something like a dormant state, which allows them to conserve […]
INSPIRED EATS
The Sides of March
Venturing out (or staying in) for small plates inspired by ancient Rome
We are precipitously close to spring, but the season still lags. Looking out on gloomy weather and shuttered shops, one can feel caught in stasis. Perhaps you are yearning for […]
THE BURREN NOTEBOOK
Isn’t That Interesting?
Storytelling in a place where the natural, human, and divine worlds co-exist
I believe in the fairies. I do. It doesn’t hurt that science these days is talking about parallel universes and worm holes, and that particles are neither here nor there […]
