An enjoyable story of discovering the origins of an unusual old (it turns out very old) house, with some amusing vignettes of village life and its characters, as well as some loving insights into the relationship of the couple who bought the house. I was less interested in long chapters about Dutch masters’ rural landscapes, but these sections were well told.

When you live in a home built in the 1500s, you can't escape the connection to the past. Plumley sets out to learn the history of his new home and the people who made it. Taking us through his process, we bump into one of those hiccups for history scholars - what's recorded and preserved often doesn't capture the day-to-day experiences of the average person. History is the story of the wealthy often and especially in localized history like this. So he goes to another source for insight: art. Specifically, Bruegel's landscapes. It's interesting to witness what Plumley extracts from these paintings and the connections they build in his mind to his present home. This book makes you look at your surroundings differently and want to apply the same treatment to your own town.

I thought this would be like... Detective work with history and architecture and archaeology. I thought I might learn about how to find the age of a house. Nah it's mostly about Bruegel paintings. The author kinda makes himself look bad also (keeps complaining about his husband, is rude to people, generally comes off entitled). Why would u make urself look like this

#ComfortBookClub - November 2023