Winter is a great time to go beachcombing. High winds, high tides and rough seas churn up a lot of stuff and leave it on shore for the discriminating walker to find. What you find will vary with where you are on the Cape, so bring your sense of adventure, bundle up and don’t forget to bring your binoculars because you may find some pretty cool birds as well. If you’re really lucky you might spot a right whale...

Through its long history, Chatham has been known by many monikers, and now it may be acquiring a new one. “Without doubt, Chatham will be the organ town,” says the Rev. Joseph Marchio, pastor, director of music and organist at the First Congregational Church of Chatham. The church, celebrating its tercentennial this year, is joining St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church and the First United Methodist Church in...

It’s a star turn for Chatham’s Karen McPherson as she reprises her favorite role—the title role—in the 1988 Pulitzer Prize winning play “Driving Miss Daisy” by Alfred Uhry. This time, it’s at the Barnstable Comedy Club, on Route 6A in Barnstable Village, and it’s playing through Jan. 26. McPherson first played Daisy Werthan in 2011 at the Academy of Performing Arts in Orleans, and it’s obvious she’s not tired ...

Cambridge-based Ensemble Features Part-time Chatham Resident Allison Coleman The internationally-renowned world music and dance ensemble Libana will present a concert called “Through the Darkness: Music of Deep Winter, Earth Love, and Healing” on Sunday, Jan. 19 in Chatham. This concert, scheduled for the dark period of the winter, will be the group’s first since the release of its new sellout CD, its 10th,...

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a watcher. I’ve watched the leaves turn in the wind, the stars twinkle in an inky indigo sky and the butterflies sipping nectar from a summer flower. Watching nature is a quiet, mostly private activity that can be done at any time in any location. I’ve watched bluebirds flirt in noisy, busy parking lots, spiders build webs in the shower and mice steal kibble from a dog wit...

Here’s a fun idea for art lovers this winter: The third annual Winter Art Series, 11 weeks of shows featuring Cape Cod galleries and artists, will begin at Chatham Bars Inn on Friday, Jan. 17. The series runs through Friday, March 27. “People really come—it’s been a great social thing for people,” says Domonic Boreffi, owner of Gallery Antonia at 1291 Main St. Boreffi schedules the shows. The shows are open...

HARWICH — A gathering for to mark the medieval holiday of Epiphany will be a first for the South Harwich Meetinghouse this weekend. The historic former Methodist Church has had many different experiences, but never a Boar’s Head Festival. There will be festive pageantry, dance, song, music and animals taking the audience back to England in the 1400s to the medieval village of Harwich-on-Herring to experience E...

“Only connect…” the novelist E.M. Forster famously wrote in 1910. ArtsLight, a new nonprofit endeavor spawned by the nonprofit Lower Cape TV dedicated to giving a voice to the local creative economy, aims to do just that. “In a world where information seems evermore scattered and suspect, we need to trust in ourselves and in connections that go deeper and create lasting bonds that transcend surface noise,” ...

My childhood obsession with birds began when I was eight years old. We had a bird feeder attached to the kitchen window and I had a brand new deck of Audubon bird cards. I also had a third grade teacher who shared her own sightings and recommended that I go to the then fairly new Cape Cod Museum of Natural History on Saturdays for class field trips. My parents agreed to take me and after a few weeks of bouncing a...

On both sides of his family, as far back as he can trace, Charlie Dodge descends from commercial fishermen. Some roots go to Norway and England, and then there is Tristam Dodge, of Newfoundland, hired by the settlers of Block Island in 1616 to teach them how to fish so they wouldn’t starve. Charlie Dodge was born on that small island 350 years later. His parents tried to buck centuries of tradition and insiste...

All through the natural year there are reasons to love being outdoors. There are all the living things, animals and plants, that fill our senses with color and light as well as scents both wild and wonderful. There are the textures of the seasons, from soft and lush to brittle and stark. There is the ever-changing night sky and the ongoing symphonies that fill our heads and hearts with an amazing variety of sound...

“Who wants to ski alone?”asks Nancy Bradford of Harwich. That's part of the reason she joined the Cape Cod Ski Club over 20 years ago. “I love meeting like-minded people, chatting about our upcoming ski trips at the early meetings, and laughing about the past ones in spring.” She lists Vermont's Killington as her favorite New England ski area and especially praises both the on-mountain grooming and the good resta...