Shack Time

Shack Time is a 27-minute video documentary program about the artist shacks in the dunes of the Cape Cod National Seashore. Shack Time examines the cultural and natural history of the dunes and shacks, which have been visited by many well-known writers and artists in the 20th century as well as a number of other people who value the unique experience of solitude and nature provided by the shacks.

Shack Time includes rare photographs by Walker Evans: a stunning portrait of shack owner Hazel Hawthorne Werner, and Eugene O’Neill’s Lifesaving Station leaning into the Atlantic Ocean following a storm. Poet Cynthia Huntington and writer Annie Dillard read from their work, and there is a rare photograph of Jack Kerouac typing in the dunes. Among the people interviewed are late shack owners Laura Fowler, Zara Ofsevit Jackson, and Ray Wells.

Shack Time was chosen for the 2001 New England Film and Video Festival and aired regionally on PBS-affiliate WGBH-TV in Boston.

DVD copies of Shack Time are available for $12.95 using PayPal, or by sending a check to PO Box 41, Hatfield, MA 01038. Price includes postage.

Photography

Tulips, May 2, 2023. (Russell Steven Powell)

Confection and cherries side-by-side before rolling. (Russell Steven Powell)

One sheet will be for milk chocolate, the other semisweet. (Russell Steven Powell)

Use only the finest chocolate to make candy exceptional. (Russell Steven Powell)

The confection should be rolled thin enough and wide enough to wrap around the cherry. (Russell Steven Powell)

The cherry comes out of the chocolate dip. (Russell Steven Powell)

The cherries will lose their gloss when dry. (Russell Steven Powell)

Patched up, packed up, and ready to go! (Russell Steven Powell)

Hatfield, Massachusetts, broadleaf tobacco. (Russell Steven Powell)

Broadleaf tobacco field Hatfield, Massachusetts. (Russell Steven Powell)

Broadleaf tobacco leaf, Hatfield, Massachusetts. (Russell Steven Powell)

Amaranth and Morning Glory (Russell Steven Powell)

THALASSA. (Russell Steven Powell)

Molly-o (Russell Steven Powell photo, Samsung 6)

Molly-o (Samsung 6)

Florida, Atlantic Coast, February (Russell Steven Powell photo, Samsung 6)

Florida, Atlantic Coast, February (Samsung 6)

Ice Storm 4 (Russell Steven Powell photo, Samsung 6)

Ice Storm 4 (Samsung 6)

Ice Storm 3 (Russell Steven Powell photo, Samsung 6)

Ice Storm 3 (Samsung 6)

Ice Storm (Russell Steven Powell photo, Samsung 6)

Ice Storm (Samsung 6)

Twilight Zone (Russell Steven Powell photo, Canon Powershot)

Twilight Zone (Canon Powershot)

Morning glories from road.

Cleome

Pink bee balm

Boothby’s Orchard, Livermore, Maine (Russell Steven Powell photo)

Averill Farm, Washington Depot, Connecticut (Russell Steven Powell photo)

Park Hill Orchard, Easthampton, Massachusetts (Russell Steven Powell photo)

Maple Bank Farm, Roxbury, Connecticut (Russell Steven Powell photo)

Bishop’s Orchards, Guilford, Connecticut (Russell Steven Powell photo)

Green Mountain Orchards, Putney, Vermont (Russell Steven Powell photo)

Honey Pot Hill Orchards, Stow, Massachusetts (Russell Steven Powell photo)

Sholan Farms, Leominster, Massachusetts (Russell Steven Powell photo)

Hackett’s Orchard, South Hero, Vermont (Russell Steven Powell photo)

Brookdale Fruit Farm, Hollis, New Hampshire (Russell Steven Powell photo)

Wellwood Orchards, Springfield, Vermont (Russell Steven Powell photo)

Hill Orchards, Johnston, Rhode Island (Russell Steven Powell photo)

Tougas Family Farm, Northborough, Massachusetts (Russell Steven Powell photo)

Alyson’s Orchard, Walpole, New Hampshire (Russell Steven Powell photo)

Riverview (Russell Steven Powell)

Pine Hill Orchards, Colrain, Massachusetts (Russell Steven Powell photo)

Fiddlehead ferns (Russell Steven Powell photos)

Fiddlehead ferns (Russell Steven Powell photo)

Molly-o does not remember and did not know.

Connecticut River, Russell Steven Powell

View from Euphoria

Euphoria

View from Euphoria

White Hydrangea

Rose Campion

Purple Lilac (Syringa)

White Lilac (Syringa)

Creeping Phlox (Phlox subulata)

Purple Lilac (Syringa)

White Lilac

Purple lilac

River Tulip II (2010)

River Tulip I (2010)