Residency artists and researchers Literature Gerry Loose Writer, artist I’m a writer, a poet and artist working with plants. I came to Saari to edit my forthcoming book about living deliberately (as Thoreau writes) in an oakwood in the west of Scotland. The fact that very close to Saari is the perfect small oakwood of Tammimäki was an irresistible temptation. Now that the intervening trees have dropped their leaves, I can see the treetops of Tammimäki when I look up from writing. I’ll be adding my experiences of Tammimäki and other oakwoods like Ruotsalainen in the Turku archipelago to the book. More editing and more work, but so enjoyable! My time at Saari has been characterised by fruitful working and good company. Ideas for other projects have come thick and fast and have been squirreled away until they can be realised. One such project will come next year however: I’ll return to Saari to oversee one of my planting works: A Place Set Apart: a circular hedge enclosing a space that can only be entered by birds or small animals – there is no opening for human passers-by. This reflects (among other things) the private space that the Saari Residences offer artists, undisturbed yet free. It echoes too the wetland reserve for migrating and nesting birds in Mietoistenlahti that adjoins Saari. I stayed in the farmhands’ cottage, very comfortably; but my laboratory of ideas was the woodland and the surrounding landscapes. Gerry Loose wrote a blog called SAARI SEASONS during his stay at the Saari residence.