Tangled

Rather a shock to drop into our friendly local organic shop and pick up - along with washing up liquid refils - a free news-sheet that turns out to be a bona fide conspiracist organ of disinformation. All your favourite lunatic-fringe obsessions are there in black and white, like a local paper used to look: Covid was a hoax; 9/11 was a false-flag operation (they are very fond of false flags) orchestrated by the US government; net zero is a lie based on false data so that the government can restrict your right to travel; Russia has every right to defend itself from our aggressive arming of Ukraine; the BBC is out to get them because Auntie broadcase an exposé of their inaccuracies, but this has made the paper more popular, because no-one trusts the BBC any more - all dusted with a little casual anti-semitism. If you have the stomach for it, the Wikipedia page about the paper is here

Of course I'm aware that this nonsense is out there in rank corners of the internet that I have never seen; but sitting on a shelf in Chipping Norton, between the lentils and the organic bread flour? It feels like something malodorous seeping up through the floor boards. By chance there is a review in today's (real) paper of a documentary about the trial of Alex Jones - the conspiracy theorist who spent a decade denying the reality of the Sandy Hook primary school atrocity, using many of the same tropes and techniques. Short summary: he did it for the money (and for once, justice has been done). Surprise

There doesn't seem to be a collective noun for rooves, but I think an 'entanglement' would work here. Is this a history of repeatedly expanding  premises to support booming business in the shop-fronts on the other side of this terrace? The walk to the store room getting longer and longer as the years go by? 

Stone buildings often have brick chimneys and flues, because brick, being fired, better withstands the heat of the fire. This one always catches my eye because the tracks of the flues are unusually visible on the outside of the building. Similarly, the pigeon holes in the roof gable on the right - was this a genuine pigeon-loft at one time? And a tile roof patched with Welsh slate - was that cost-saving in a year when business wasn't so good? 

A lot of history in the view from one spot, if only we had the knowledge to fill in the gaps. Best not make up any theories