A week of restful countryside.

Last week my wife and I spent a few days in a wooden lodge in the Somerset countryside.

What a lovely, relaxing break it turned out to be.

I'm currently (and desperately) trying to find a job as my photography business just isn't working out - unfortunately I live in a city filled with photography students who seriously undercut the market price for work and leave people like me unable to earn a living. As a result, money is quite tight. In fact, I didn't expect us to go anywhere this year.

My wife, however, found a bargain break online and booked it as a surprise.

We travelled up to Somerset in a mixture of sunshine and drizzle – a sign of the week to come – and arrived to be informed the forecast was miserable for most of the week.

In a fit of ridiculous optimism, I had failed to pack anything but summer clothing, with the exception of a hoody from Italy. As a result I spent the week wandering around the countryside in shorts and open toed shoes (expensive flip flops!).

It didn't matter at all. We walked for miles and saw lots of wildlife. As someone who grew up in a council house in North London, I am always amazed at the number of animals roaming free in the British countryside. We took dozens of photos and walked along footpaths through farm land (somehow I always feel like a trespasser when we do this). The views at the top of the hills were breathtaking (getting to the top was pretty breathtaking too!) and I felt my cares drift away as the week progressed.

Returning to the lodge we were able to relax our aching muscles in the best part of the lodge – an outdoor hot tub. What a pleasure. We sat in the tub each evening and relaxed to the sound of the birds singing. Disappointingly, the weather was predominantly cloudy, so no stars, but it didn't really matter.

On our last evening we walked up a pretty steep hill and sat to watch the hills come alive at dusk. We saw rabbits come out on the opposite hill, playing as they ran around. Then a fox, hunting nearby.

After a while we noticed another fox, very near the rabbits, but not moving. After a few moments we saw the reason – she was with her cubs. Four fox cubs chasing each other and enjoying the evening sunshine (the few minutes we had...). What an amazing sight; we sat for a long time just watching them at play. It was the perfect end to a relaxing week.

Hopefully, my mind is now sufficiently recharged to enable me to get on with my novel (I thought of a direction change while sitting in the hot tub) and finally climb past the wall I've run into.