Hello again,

It’s me, the Old Millhouse in Dalkeith.  Since I wrote a few of these things you humans call blogs, a few weeks ago, I’ve been getting lots of messages from some of my nearest and dearest dotted around Scotland.  There’s lots of us in the House family.  I’ve mentioned Preston(field) House, my cousin, before, but there are so many others.  I’ll maybe tell you a bit more about some of them in the months ahead, but in the meantime, thanks to Dalmeny (second cousin), Hopetoun (she’s my very big sister – I call her Hoppy), my very old, Scottish Borders great, great uncle, Traquair and even my far-flung cousin (once-removed), Pollok in Glasgow.  All of these lovely houses got in touch to tell me how much they enjoyed reading what it’s like from OUR point of view as opposed to the humans’.  After all, we’ve been around for much longer than most of them and it’s us they come to see, so why shouldn’t we have our fifteen minutes of fame?

All of which brings me around to the most important person in my life.  Whisper it (she doesn’t know), but it’s not actually Sally, the boss.  Please don’t tell her I said this, but it’s actually another lady.  I don’t actually know her name, but just know her as Mrs Housekeeper.  She is the person who keeps me looking spick and span.  You’d not think it of course, but just like you humans, us houses need constant grooming if we want to look our best.  Otherwise, just like you, we get a bit shabby and while we don’t get dirty fingernails or greasy hair, we do get dusty skirting boards and a veneer of grime on our windows.   And of course, all those lovely beds in my five bedrooms don’t make themselves, nor do the en-suite bathrooms clean themselves. With all the lovely guests who keep coming to keep me company, Mrs Housekeeper is VERY busy. She really is a treasure: I don’t know what I’d do without her.  If (I mean WHEN!) you come to stay with me, you’ll never see her, but you’ll know just what a good job she does because everything is just perfect: clean, fresh and ready for you to have a relaxing break where you can forget the cares of the world (I believe there is something just now called an election which seems to be annoying a lot of you humans) for a few splendid days of pampering and pleasure.