One of the things I love most about living here is being more in tune with nature’s rhythms. Watching tides, Moon phases, storm systems, and bird migrations, I’ve learned to […]
Visual Stories
THE ESSENTIALS
The Ottolenghi Challenge
For a home cook, mastering the art of a flavor wizard can be a journey
The pressure was on — an invitation to dinner from a close friend I’ve known since school days. Barbara and I often cook cooperative dinners, but this time I was […]
MEET THE MAKER
Nature in the Round
A Wellfleet musician who finds rhythm in the seasons discovers that wreaths aren’t always evergreen
On fall mornings, Jordan Renzi can be found in the back of her truck making wreaths while she keeps company with the familiar voices on NPR. She works several jobs […]
HALLOWEEN
Tricks and Treats on the Green and the Streets
INTERVALS
In Eastham, Music, Camaraderie, and HIIT Are Hot
Among the seniors, a class that’s right for the high-intensity types
EASTHAM — High Intensity Interval Training, known as HIIT, isn’t the kind of exercise regimen that one would automatically associate with the over-65 crowd, but the program has been hugely […]
UP IN THE AIR
A Neglected History Gets the Spotlight
Professional juggler and author Thom Wall says the circus is ‘known by everyone and studied by no one’
Thom Wall enjoys holding a knife between his teeth and balancing objects like wine glasses and playing cards on the pointed tip. The trick falls under a discipline called “mouthstick.” […]
THE SCUTTLEBUTT
A Leveling Off of the Steep Right Whale Decline
Births have increased but so have deaths caused by human activities
There is some good news about the population of North Atlantic right whales: after seven years of declining numbers from 2013 to 2020, there has been a small increase in […]
MORNING FLIGHT
Late Fall Brings Rare Flycatchers to the Outer Cape
The cause of ‘vagrancy’ remains hard to discern
It was a warm late October evening — one of those days when summer doesn’t seem ready to leave — when I spotted the rarest bird that I’ve ever seen […]
HOUSING
At the Groundbreaking on Lawrence Road
WELLFLEET — State and local officials wielding shiny shovels officially broke ground at the site of the Residences at Lawrence Hill on Oct. 30. Speaking to a small group of […]
UNDISTURBED
Thoroughly Hyssop-Leaved
A meadow plant that thrives in sandy soil with good drainage, hyssop-leaved thoroughwort (Eupatorium hyssopifolium) will show up at anthropogenic sites with similar conditions. The pictured specimen is a volunteer […]
RARA AVIS
This Week’s Bird Sightings
Confirmed bird sightings on the Outer Cape in the week preceding the Independent’s deadline on Tuesday, Nov. 5 included the following, based on a report prepared by Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet […]
ASTRAL PROJECTIONS
Heroes, You Have a Choice
Be accountable for your mistakes and the universe may give you a do-over
We’re at the height of Scorpio season — or in the depths, depending on how you look at things. The Sun is leaving its trine with Saturn and moving into […]
HAUNTED HISTORY
Beware the Black Flash!
Remembering the leaping, fire-breathing phantom of Cape Cod
It bounds down the alleyways off Commercial Street, its black cloak trailing in the wind, dark laughter bubbling from behind its horrible metal mask. Children dash home in terror the […]
ROAD TRIP
To Edward Gorey, Everything Was a Gem
The Yarmouth Port home of the artist known for his sense of Edwardian macabre is anything but scary
I have an image flaming in my head, and it’s glorious. Edward Gorey (or Ogred Weary, for he often used anagrams) drives up to his house in Yarmouth Port. He has […]
POLISHING UP
Letting Gravestones Speak
Robert Sweetman teaches the careful cleaning of historic markers
“Her toils are past, her apricots down, her scurvy and her love,” Robert Sweetman reads. “No, that can’t be right.” He kneels before the lichen-covered grave in Provincetown’s Old Alden […]
