On Thursday, July 7 the Cranfest in the Courtyard Concert Series, presented by the Harwich Cranberry Arts and Music Festival, will open to the unique sound of Runa, an award–winning Celtic-American Roots supergroup known for pushing the boundaries of Irish folk music. The concert series will continue for five consecutive Thursday evenings, finishing up on Aug. 4.      Admission is $25 per show, with a seas...

Summer, Cape Cod, ice cream. What better combinations are there? Here at the Cape's elbow, there is an especially dense collection of businesses devoted to satisfying the craving for frozen treats. Of the town's half a dozen ice cream shops, the two longest-running are under new management. But tradition dies hard here, and the new operators of Short and Sweet in South Chatham and Buffy's Ice Cream downtown...

Jon Vaughan, founder of Yankee Ingenuity on Chatham’s Main Street, has just published his second book of stunning photographs and essays called “Cape Cod: Dawn to Dusk.” He calls the book his “tribute to this incredible sandcastle created by a glacier and preserved by humanity.” Due to the forced pandemic closing of Yankee Ingenuity for 92 days beginning in March 2020, Vaughan finally had time to assemble his ...

It’s happened. Summer has arrived and with her all the attendant joys and headaches that a peninsula bursting with people, vehicles, and entitled demands can hold. I’m a lifer here and tend to be more forgiving toward our visitors than many newcomers, which is kind of ironic, I think. If someone moved here not realizing this is a bustling summer tourist destination, oops. Some of us spend more time out in n...

DENNIS – In the beginning, love is grand. Imagine, then, the emotionally charged scenario of being divorced, freshly remarried and on your second honeymoon, only to find your ex-partner and his/her new love sharing a terrace in the suite right next door. Complete with impeccable character development and rapid-fire, staccato dialogue, “Private Lives” at Cape Playhouse portrays the sheer absurdity of love – ...

There's nothing like plunking down your lawn chair and listening to an outdoor concert under warm summer skies. Over the next two months, there will be ample opportunity to do just that. The summer concert season begins this week, and the variety of music as well as the number of venues is enough to satisfy even the most ardent music lover. Best of all, many of the events are free. Let's start with the trad...

Boy – Thar’s a Jesus lot o’wind that blows on George’s Bank. Perhaps one of the most beautiful and moving experiences nature offers the human condition can be found at sunrise, at sea. The sunrise over the North Atlantic Ocean in summer can be extraordinarily beautiful. The breeze which is almost always busy at sea seems to pause for the moments it takes for the sun to rise above the horizon. The heat th...

What makes for a great beach read? For Jessica Devin, it's something that's difficult to pin down to any one author or genre. "I'm a believer that it really varies from person to person," said Devin, who co-owns the Brewster Book Store on Route 6A. True enough, what makes a great beach book for one person might not suit another. Some like fiction and others non-fiction. The sports fanatic might crave a tell...

BREWSTER — In recent years, Cape Cod locals and tourists alike have grown more cognizant of the reality that we share our local waters with one of the ocean’s most high-profile apex predators: great white sharks. Our knowledge of great white sharks and their behaviors has grown as new technologies are introduced from local shark experts, including Sharktivity — the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy’s free mobil...

DENNIS — Some audience members were doing the twist at intermission. By the finale, fans were on their feet for a standing ovation that lasted the duration of the closing medley. Not bad for a Wednesday matinee performance of “Grease,” the first indoor production at Cape Playhouse since 2019 and the premier under Tony Award-winning Artistic Director David Elliott, who signed on in January. Directed by Joyce Ch...

In the 19 th century, 25,000 women convicted of petty crimes such as stealing a bucket of milk were transported to Tasmania, then known as Van Deimen’s Land, with “tin tickets” stamped with their convict numbers hung around their necks. Harwich author Deborah J. Swiss’s 2010 acclaimed non-fiction book, “The Tin Ticket: The Heroic Journey of Australia’s Convict Women,” is about to be made into a television ser...

Paul Saliba is certain that kindness can solve a lot of problems. The Nauset Regional High School junior from Harwich knows from firsthand experience that kindness can uplift people and improve their day, but in Saliba’s mind, being kind can have an even greater impact. “Bringing more kindness, in my opinion, helps other people have better days,” Saliba said. “I believe kindness can change the world.” Salib...