There are some rare and wonderful days that become stamped on our memories forever. They often start out with a plan that is simple and ordinary but which, in the end, morphs into a delightful sequence of events that add up to a unique and memorable day. Last week was a school vacation week locally and my youngest grandson, who is 14, and I had planned a day to go out birding. He has done the Mass Audubon Bird...

CHATHAM – Even as the vaccination rate increases, it's likely that large, in-person gatherings will be limited this year. Among the hardest hit by this are local nonprofits, which depend on summer fundraisers for support. Many local organizations are planning to either continue virtual events begun last summer or launch new ones. Next month, the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center will hold its first-ever “Antenna...

Almost a year ago to the day, I spoke with local singer Lisa Jason about a project she took part in to record a collaged, socially distanced version of the 1957 Patty Page tune “Old Cape Cod.” The project was the brainchild of Chatham's Tony Raine, general manager and head of production at the Cape Cod Melody Tent since 1994, who found himself thinking of ways to bring local musicians out of isolation and crea...

Golden fingers of sunlight reached up through the trees, beckoning me. I pulled on my jeans and a sweater, packed my sketchbook and binoculars in my backpack, swigged a last gulp of coffee and drove off to see and hear what was happening out in the world. The morning was a cool but clear one at the wetland area where I started my walk. Reflections shone off the pond with little distortion as red-winged blackbi...

On Friday, April 23 at 7 p.m. Cape Cod Theatre Company/Harwich Junior Theatre will present a new play, “Open Mic Night” written by New York based playwright Justin Jay Gray, filmed and directed by CCTC/HJT technical director Matt Kohler. The play will be broadcast on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Jester51 and on the theater's Youtube channel at CCTC HJT. After five years of highs and mostly lows running the ...

Have you ever forgotten someone’s name? Ever gone down into the basement only to wonder, at the bottom of the stairs, why you’re there? Ever driven off-Cape and don’t recall crossing one of the bridges to get there? When you’re over 40, or 50, or 70, you might fear that these memory lapses are a sign that Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are right around the corner. If this describes you, local author...

All week long the weather folks had predicted a perfect spring day on the horizon, so I cleared my calendar, packed a snack and some water along with my binoculars and sketchbook and prepared to drive off shortly after dawn the next day. I slept and dreamt of wandering, then woke and hit the road. As most of you probably know, getting from here to there is fraught with utility trucks, construction cones and tr...

It was dark when I got up on this dreary, rainy morning. I could hear the splatter of raindrops against the glass of the windowpane but mostly I was listening to the cardinals. Song sparrows and cardinals are always some of the first birds we hear singing in the spring in our own backyards, and their songs are a welcome sound come April. “My” pair of song sparrows is already nesting beneath the forsythia, but ...

When you hear the words "robot" and "autonomy" applied to boat operations, what do you think? If the image of Captain-less boats moving on Nantucket Sound springs alarmingly to mind, you are on the wrong track, according to Captain Lauren Lamm. Lamm, the speaker at last week's Chatham Marconi Maritime Center online program titled "Seagoing Robots," is a graduate of the Mass Maritime Academy, an experienced Cap...

HARWICH – If there's one thing most people agree on, it's that after a year of social isolation, the time is right to get out and have some fun. Doing that, albeit within health and safety protocols, is one of the aims of the Family Fun Fair, a free drive-by event being held at Monomoy Regional High School on Saturday, April 10, from 10 a.m. to noon. “It's been a really tough year for parents with young chi...

Back when Paul McCartney was writing the lyrics, “You say goodbye, but I say hello,” he probably wasn’t thinking about scoters and ospreys, but that was the song that popped into my head as I stood on an empty beach this past week. Calling a beach empty is probably an oxymoron, for even if we can’t see them, thousands, even millions of tiny organisms are doing their jobs. Plants such as beach peas are spreadin...

After all this time cooped up inside the house and socially distancing, are you yearning to get outside and explore the springtime landscape? Are you a little bit anxious about the idea of getting lost, or accidentally taking a route that ends up covering a few more miles than you are ready for? Fear no more. On Tuesday, April 6 from 7 to 8 p.m. Harwich Conservation Trust will host a free webinar in which Harw...