Author Lee W. Doty is back with her second mystery novel “Last Casualty” (Publisher Page, 2021) — this one revolving around Cape Codders transported to their new home near the Antietam Battlefield in Maryland. During an email interview last week, Doty, a former Chatham summer resident, talked about what it is like to become a fiction writer after retiring from a career as an attorney. “I’ve tried to underst...

The morning dawned cloudy and gray with just a tinge of light over the trees. It was so faint I had to blink a few times to be sure I was really awake and seeing clearly. The mockingbird that claimed the sprawling holly tree began to call, followed moments later by a house wren that mumbled an off key tune. The crickets and other insects that sing in the dark were bringing their chorus to a close and I knew that ...

Recently I’ve been doing a lot of walking in various towns and neighborhoods in addition to my regular treks along the beach or through the woods and meadows. I highly recommend this as you get to see so much more on foot than you do when driving by.  I walk in all sorts of neighborhoods, some poor, some not so poor, and some very well off. It’s been a very educational few months. Unlike many walkers and jogge...

HARWICH – Local photographer, author and documentary filmmaker Kim Roderiques has done it again. Roderiques is known for her photography in such books as “I Am of Cape Cod,” “I Am of Chatham,” “Dogs on Cape Cod” and others. She is also known for her documentaries, made with local cinematographer Geoffrey Bassett. “Pirouettes, Pliés, and Pets” features the relationship between dancers and animals, and “The Way H...

Peggi Joseph, long dark hair tied in a ponytail, blue sweatshirt and matching rubber gloves peeking out of orange Grundens, makes quick work of packing thousands of pounds of haddock.  Her image was captured by photographer Shareen Davis at Stage Harbor as Joseph moved hefty haddock into totes beside a bin of ice. Joseph seems unaware of the camera. Davis catches her intent on doing a job she loves. The ...

Here it is, October, and I feel like I haven’t quite finished with my summer chores. Sure, it’s a chilly morn and I have my fuzzy socks and warm sweatshirt on while I sip my coffee, but my head is still swimming in a summer breeze of birds, butterflies, and tomatoes blushing on the vine.  Like many others, I’ve seen my schedule amp up day by day until I sometimes feel busier that I was pre-COVID. Artists and w...

An illustrated cookbook by a Chatham artist and a modern-day thriller, both by nonagenarian authors, prove that it’s never too late to paint, write and publish. Oil painter Nancy Whalen Rude, 92, has created a charming cookbook, “Cooking and Dining with Friends: The Art and Favorite Recipes of Nancy Whalen Rude” that is both a showcase for her own beautiful oil paintings and a tribute to 50-years of friendship...

Sometimes life just hands you a random bouquet of flowers and says, here, just enjoy this. It’s surprising and lovely and when it involves a friend offering a place away from it all in an incredibly beautiful location with no strings attached, the only thing you can do is pinch yourself and say thank you over and over again. This very thing happened to me last week and in less than two days I’d packed my sleep...

In Sweden, fishermen, regulators, and environmental organizations work with government funding dedicated to developing fishing gear that is safe for seals. In the United States, that doesn’t happen. There is a section of the Marine Mammal Protection Act that provides fishermen with the opportunity to deter seals, but to avoid penalties they are supposed to abide by a list of recommendations produced by National M...

CHATHAM – Traditionally, they travel by air on broomsticks, but next Saturday they'll take to the water, filling Oyster Pond with pointy hats, flowing black dresses and paddleboards. The non-profit Witches on the Water will hold a fundraising event at Oyster Pond beginning at 2 p.m. Oct. 2. Participants will be garbed in Halloween-style witchy attire as they paddle around the pond to raise money for the Family...

CHATHAM — Flip through the pages of John Whelan and Kim Roderiques’ book “I Am of Chatham: People and Their Stories” and you will read stories and see photographs that tell the tales of what makes the town so special.  Some of the 92 subjects included in the book shared stories of growing up in Chatham, while others chose to write about how the town helped shape them professionally or how it ultimately became ...

“Are you ready to empty your mind?”  “Blithe Spirit” at the Chatham Drama Guild beckons all to ghoulish happenings in celebration of Noel Coward’s 1941 comedy set in Kent, England and reprised for decades on stage and in film. Novelist Charles Condomine serves dry martinis, shaken not stirred, to his beloved second wife and dear friends Dr. George and Violet Bradman.  A sense of golden prosperity fills the ...