Sam started her spiritual journey in her christian childhood & learnt a great deal from her parents' commitment to politics, adult education, literature and other creative arts.

From her late teens she deeply explored other faiths, especially Buddhism and Kabbalah and became very committed to meditation and spiritual practice, including retreat. After studying literature at Sussex University she spent long periods in retreat and became involved in running retreats and retreat centres. Alongside her spiritual work she has raised a family, including home schooling and created several eco homes and organic gardens with her former husband, including Badarroch Retreat in Scotland.

In 2003 Sam was ordained as an interfaith minister and then went on to complete four years professional development with the Scottish Episcopal Church, including studying theology at Aberdeen University. She worked as a pioneer minister to collaboratively create fresh expressions of Church in her local community in Scotland, until coming back to Devon where she set up Bonehill Retreat.

Last summer Sam, Ian and Tam moved to the Vicarage at Dartington.
Sam loves to potter about at home, go slowly and notice small things… hence the image of the snail shown here!

Ian grew up by the woods, hills and rivers of the Trossachs in Scotland and beautiful, natural places have remained important to him ever since. He went on to complete an art and design degree at St. John's College in York, specialising in illustration and graphic design.

Since then he has worked both in house and as a freelance designer on a wide range of projects from card and book illustration to graphic and web design.

Ian has had a long term interest in spiritualilty and all things esoteric. He worked with Sam to set up Bonehill Retreat, and created the Living Spirit website and blog. He runs his own design business, Graphic Alchemy, which specialises in highly individual, bespoke website design.

Meredith Tam is Sam's younger son, her older son Zy Callum is studying politics at Glasgow University, while Tam attends the South Devon Steiner School and lives with Sam and Ian at Bonehill House.

When at home, Tam can often be found working on his manga drawings, Warhammer modelling and many other creative projects. He is the proud owner of vast quantities of coloured pencils and the picture here also shows one of his drawings and a model from his Space Wolf Army.

He also loves to play with his kittens, have friends round for sleepovers, or spend time outside cycling, playing sports and climbing trees. He often gets involved with Living Spirit events, helping to cook delicious food, making fires or joining in with music and storytelling.

Joyce is a dear friend and fellow Dartmoor dweller who lives just up the road at Manaton. While we wait for Joyce to write her own profile (go for it, Joyce!) here are just a few words of introduction.

Joyce brings great creativity and beauty to everything she does, from homemaking to her work with sound healing and her study of Kabbalah. It's Joyce that will get out the coloured pencils to draw a Tree of Life or use tuning forks on the beach at Iona to place an octave on the Tree.

Joyce is very committed to the Work and travels regularly to London to study with fellow tutors from the Kabbalah Society. She is the main contact for The Devon Kabbalah Group, which meets fortnight;y at Bonehill and runs day workshops.

Sue is a member of the Circle Group and was a second year student on the School of Myth programme which ran this year at Bonehill, plus a personal friend of Sam's, having walked many miles and cooked many meals together with our families.

Sue and her partner Martin, together with their 2 sons moved to Devon in 2000 and stated work on an eco house, with Sam's help to envision the interiors. Green Dragon Barn is still an ongoing project (it was featured in series 2 of Grand Designs on Channel 4 television) but is comfortably habitable now!

Both boys are pupils at the South Devon Steiner School in Dartington and Sue works at Embercombe, a sustainability project 7 miles from Exeter on a beautiful 50 acre site with two yurt villages, 20 acres of broad-leaf woodland, a market garden, a lake and an extraordinary team of people running a broad range of programmes to inspire committed action for a truly sustainable world. For more information, do visit www.embercombe.co.uk Sue is a contact person for anyone wanting to know more about the Circle Group.

The Vicarage is not only a base and gathering place for the people introduced here, it's also the home of some wonderful animals.

Here you can see Tam's kittens… Serenity, a beautiful, long-haired tabby and the terrible ginger twins, Leo and Lucifer. Outside in the garden lives our giant rabbit Pan, who is always happy to make new friends, especially ones bearing dandelion leaves.