a cape cod notebook by WCAI

From hydrangea fun facts to backyard storytelling, Tom Moroney shares a charming and humorous vision of what he calls “The People’s Stop” on the festival tour.

One of many mysteries that attends living on Cape Cod manifests in an unlikely location: Route 6, Harwich, around what most people still call Exit 10 at Route 124, now officially Exit 82.

A quiet nighttime journey to count horseshoe crabs becomes an exploration of Nantucket’s seasonal transformations. From blooming lilacs to shifting shorelines, Mary Bergman reflects on the beauty, fragility, and resilience of coastal life.

In the middle of a snowy Cape Cod winter, a dog, an opossum, and a pair of neighbors create an unforgettable moment of surprise, humor, and connection.

Tom Moroney explores the efforts to protect the herring population on the Cape and the volunteers and infrastructure that make its recovery possible.

Nantucket writer and historian Mary Bergman talks about the sounds of wildlife reemerging signaling the return of spring.

Walk around the cranberry bogs of Cape Cod – cranberries.org says about 11,500 bogs in southeastern Massachusetts – in mid-winter, and it’s quiet. Desolate. Frigid. Filled with life.

Nantucket historian and writer Mary Bergman speaks on the practice and tradition of scallop harvesting.

Building a stone wall

Darkness

Trespassers

S’no garage for me….

Jonathan Walker, slave stealer

Standing at the Edge of the World

I spent many years as an objective observer of this place. An academic, a historian, a researcher. On my better days, an anthropologist or some kind of gonzo documentarian, snapping pictures and recording my observations on the yellow legal pads I took everywhere, even the beach.

If you live on Cape Cod, you likely have sand in your car. And if you live on Cape Cod and don’t have sand in your car, I might question if you are really living life to its fullest.

A repository of Cape Cod artifacts

Cummiquid writer Susan Moeller takes a rabbit hole trip to an earlier Cape Cod.

Seth Rolbein talks about fish names

Tale of tequila and a saxophone

The hound has gifted me a new image of hope. And it looks like an otter.

In this week's Cape Cod Notebook, Mary Bergman talks about October on Nantucket

I went in the water yesterday, a little slower than the day before, slower still than July when it was hot, hot, hot. The water now is not. A stiff breeze made for an embarrassing race to my towel to dry off, if anyone was watching. No one was.

Time now for a Cape Cod Notebook. This week, Wellfleet journalist Seth Rolbein talks about the restoration of wetlands in Harwich.

On this week's Cape Cod Notebook, Susan Moeller shares five minutes of peace on Cape Cod.

In this week's episode of A Cape Cod Notebook, Mary Bergman shares how she finds light in the depth of winter.

In this week's Cape Cod Notebook, Tom Moroney discusses September on the Cape Cod Rail Trail.

On this episode of Cape Cod Notebook, Tom Moroney shares a piece about September on the Rail Trail.

Cicada nymphs make incisions, but trees hold up.

Yes, I have sand in the car. So what?

Cape Cod Notebook Episode by Mary Bergman

To arrive at the Bank Street beach in Harwich Port, one must pass through its small windblown parking lot, a trip made dozens of times in my youthful race to the water’s edge.

Now that the peninsula is filled to the brim once again, if you take a hike along the beautiful shore between high and low tides, beyond the confines of a public beach, be sure you have one of three things with you, or risk arrest for trespassing: A fishing rod, a gun, or a boat.

Flea markets are where lazy people go when they want to go yard-sale-ing.No driving all over the place or trying to find parking in some snotty residential area that frowns on yard sales.

We are past the solstice, and I am trying not to get too down about it. The fog that rolls in each night is a welcome break from the heat.

July is coming quickly, so it’s almost time for my gardening motivation to go into hibernation.

Isn’t everything we make temporary in the grand scheme of things? My day to day work is to promote historic preservation on Nantucket. We talk about preserving things in perpetuity. But on an eroding pile of sand, perpetuity is a relative term.

One of the most beautiful spots in Wellfleet, or for that matter, on the entire Lower Cape, is Old Wharf Road. It is one of those headlands that, along with Indian Neck and Lieutenant’s Island, thrust out into greater Wellfleet Harbor.

As we drove off, disappointed, I said I don’t want to JUST be on Cape Cod. I want to feel like I’m here, really here, sand between my toes, waves crashing, gulls calling out for a meal.