T he Artist Cottages at Orleans Market Square are now open and ready for visitors at 15 Old Colony Way, and soon there will be music to enjoy along with the visuals. With a wide variety of art to enjoy, artists to meet and a lovely space in which to relax and have a snack from Little Beach Baker, The Food Truck or a treat from the Hot Chocolate Sparrow, the cottages are a perfect family-friendly destina...

With a nod to the old 1966 movie and theme song that were ubiquitous in a time long ago and far away, this phrase has popped into my head more than a few times this past week. Nature is tough, man. It sure has its good, but there’s plenty of what we may think of as bad and ugly, too, like the dead baby bunny left on my sidewalk yesterday by one of the neighborhood feral cats. Wild animals, birds, and plants...

The Crafty Chics celebrated their 15th anniversary during a luncheon on Harding’s Beach last week. About 25 of the roughly 75 members basked in the sun on a windy 68-degree morning to make plaster-of-Paris sandcastles, share their latest projects, swap craft supplies, enjoy a catered lunch and just, well, be together in person after over a year of meeting mainly via Zoom during the pandemic. “I have to dres...

Just in time for the opening of the Cape Cod Baseball League on June 20, Orleans summer resident Kristin Waring has published her first novel, “On the Mound.” “I am and always have been a Red Sox fan,” Waring recalled in an email interview from her home in Houston last week. “I would always ask to attend a game at Fenway for my birthday in late June with my father, who taught me so much about baseball and foot...

As the summer season begins to bloom, the Academy of Performing Arts in Orleans has some summer shows and classes scheduled that have been over a year in the making. In spring 2020, Academy Board of Trustees President Judy Hamer explained, the plan was to stage an in-person performance of “The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet.” COVID-19 soon put those plans into storage. “A year later, we're bringing it a...

HARWICH — For football players, it's the Super Bowl. For dog lovers, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show has been the ultimate stage to showcase all breeds of dogs. This weekend, Harwich resident Karen Smith will be fulfilling a lifelong dream as she leads her 2-year-old red Australian cattle dog Bizzie Bea into the ring for a chance to be named 2021 Best of Breed or Best in Show at the prestigious show. S...

Cape Rep Theatre is preparing to kick off its 36th season with a return to live performance under the summer stars. The fun will start on July 6 and will include two outdoor summer shows on Cape Rep's new outdoor stage, as well as children's outdoor programming throughout July and August. After the year we've had, what better way to return to live theater than with a comedy? How about a comedy about live thea...

If you love podcasts and are fascinated by sharks, you're in luck. The new Gills Talk podcast shines t he light of science on Cape Cod's most charismatic predatory marine megafauna. Living up to its motto, “Smart about Sharks,” Gills Talk is a natural extension of Gills Club, the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy's  STEM-based education initiative dedicated to connecting young shark enthusiasts...

Close to 15 years ago, after researcher Owen Nichols’ first season working with a fishing family, he came up with what he thought was an impressive chart that drew direct connections between wind direction, water temperature and the presence of squid. He remembers being excited it to share it with Ernie Eldredge of Chatham Fish Weirs Enterprises, whose fish weirs he was using to study squid. Eldredge looked at...

CHATHAM — If you’re among the many who didn’t get a chance last season to see the exhibits at the Atwood Museum, Home of the Chatham Historical Society (CHS), the good news is that you will have another chance to see them this season. “We’re still here,” says Executive Director Kevin Wright. “We understand that a lot of people weren’t able to get to the museum last year.” And even if you did see the exhibit...

The winter landscape is fading away. The stark grays and blacks of leafless trees and shrubs are now covered with soft greens, whites, and various shades of peach, gold, and pink. Bare branches now flutter with soft petals and colorful birds move between them like flecks of confetti against a cerulean blue sky. The beige and gray grasses of the salt marshes have given way to the new greens of this year’s growt...

Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT) is back with a concise summer season, presented under the stars starting June 30. After a year without in-person performances, live theater returns on a new garden stage situated in front of the theater and in the Larry Phillips Performance Pavilion. The season starts off with an epic high seas tale, “Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, The Amazing Adv entures of Louis de Rou...