Being fortunate enough to visit the Forest during the week, I often see what hides at the weekend.
Here, a relatively close encounter with one of the Highland cattle up on the old racecourse at Groenendaal. On busier days they keep their distance, but throughout the year they manage this pasture in their own way, grazing, fertilising, breaking the soil, encouraging plants to germinate, creating quiet diversity.
And yet there is a kind of symmetry. This was never meant to be meadow. It was carved out of the trees, just as these otters are carved out of wood. The racecourse, like the cattle, was never meant to be here, but perhaps, through the slow work of grazing, it has become something worth keeping open.