Butler's Quarters B&B and Homestay, Duns

We have had such an interesting set of guests recently, including an artist who took a photo of our breakfast spread, commenting it looks like a Dutch painting (she asked to take the flowers from the guest room too - for painting), guests bearing homegrown vegetables and preserves, and last week a gift arrived in the post - some breakfast knives we talked about over breakfast. The kindness and generosity of people makes me smile and gives me hope!

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We love having bikers to stay! Billy the cat so took to this latest one he nearly hitched a ride with her! 😉

My favourite part about getting the B&B ready is strolling through the garden and picking random flowers to put the finishing touches to the guest room. It really transforms the room, I feel. When we first moved here there wasn't a great variety of flowers for cutting, this has now changed and I have learnt to plant roses away from the deer thoroughfare!

More bikers came to stay yesterday - not that other guests we've had recently haven't been interesting!

We are getting ready to open up the B&B again! Just sorting out an issue with the shower and then we'll be good to go. Can't wait.

We have not been operating the B&B since the beginning of the pandemic and we remain closed for the foreseeable future as we are now hosting a refugee family of 6. Our self catering apartment however is available to rent from late November.

Ongoing window restoration: using a speed heater to remove all layers of old paint, then painting them with linseed oil paint, which is what would have been used originally. We think we worked out what the original colour would have been. You can see why people use plastic paint these days (linseed oil paint takes forever to dry and you need a really good run of good weather) , but linseed paint is so much better for the window. These windows are more than 200 years old. I wonder which modern windows are still to be seen in 200 years time?

Butler's Quarters B&B and Homestay, Duns updated their business hours.

We are not open for B&B guests yet. Our self catering accommodation is available from 4th January.
https://blithebreaks.co.uk/self-catering-holiday-cottage/

Self-catering Holiday Cottage – Blithe Breaks Self-catering Holiday Cottage A delightful self-catering holiday cottage, with wood burner and well equipped kitchen, in a convenient yet secluded location close to the centre of the small town of Duns. Ideally situated for outdoor pursuits, local wedding venues or exploring the Scottish Borders tow...

We have decided to remain closed to B&B guests for the foreseeable future (the next six months at least). We do not operate a guest house, this is a family home and complying with current rules whilst keeping the family safe would be impossible for us. Thank you for your understanding.

Our self-catering accommodation with flexible booking arrangements is open though.

https://blithebreaks.co.uk/self-catering-holiday-cottage/

Self-catering Holiday Cottage – Blithe Breaks Self-catering Holiday Cottage A delightful self-catering holiday cottage, with wood burner and well equipped kitchen, in a convenient yet secluded location close to the centre of the small town of Duns. Ideally situated for outdoor pursuits, local wedding venues or exploring the Scottish Borders tow...

Just a wee update to say we remain closed for now, hoping for normality to return in the not-too-distant future! Take Care.

We miss our B&B guests. However, I'm having to eat the lovely home baked croissants myself, to clear space in the freezer, and we're getting to test the guest room some more, resulting in a few improvements. Just as well there's the extra space, since our cat has turfed us out of our bedroom, turning it into maternity quarters. Silver linings!

Review of Scots hotel goes viral after visitor mistakes tablet for bar of soap AN American visitor has inadvertently gone viral on social media after mistaking tablet left for him in a Skye hotel room for a bar of soap.

New car (I wish!) - not the first time this season we had guests with a fancy car. Turns out because we're tucked away a bit from the road (and yet centrally located in the town) we're quite a good place to stay for classic cars.

I think my limit would be a Trabant though.

Adding a German touch to breakfast last week (for some guests from Germany!):

Butler's Quarters B&B and Homestay, Duns updated their website address.

We've nicknamed our guest room "Butler's Quarters", although the house was probably never grand enough to have warranted a butler. We think the room was the houskeeper's room, and the shower room next door used to be the pantry. Have a look at what we made of those two dilapidated rooms: