Rather than a developer building a complex of dwellings and looking for buyers, a

cohousing project is created by a group of people with similar values and lifestyles

working together to design exactly where and how they want to live.

Cohousing is the deliberate, intentional way

of creating a physical community composed

of private dwellings, communal space and

shared resources. It is the ideal pattern for

sustainable living. It is something that is created from the

bottom up rather than from the top down.

The 'Grove of Elders' Cohousing Project

1. The name

The phrase 'Grove of Elders' comes from Bill Plotkin's book, Nature and the Human Soul:

Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World It describes a stage of

personal development in which a mature human being starts to become a true elder rather

than simply growing old. (Here is my online review of the book) Old people are not very highly valued in our modern Western culture but this will

gradually change as the population ages and an important part of that change is for

mature people to re-imagine their role as wise elders and to support each other in

manifesting it in the world. 2. The cohousing concept

And here is the definitive book on the subject which

includes a well-thought-out—and well-tested— procedure

that can be followed by any group wanting to start a senior

cohousing project. The book is aimed at American readers

but based mainly on research from Denmark and includes

some great case studies. (There is a later edition of the

book than the one shown here, but it is more expensive.)

We are a couple in our seventies, well educated, fit and

healthy and deeply involved in green issues,

sustainability, simple living and green spirituality. I'm

Marian, he's Sky. Here is my bio. Here is his.

We have been together for thirty years and when we

met we both already had adult children. Our extended

families—including our four children and eight

grandchildren—are scattered around the world, in

various parts of the USA, in Australia and in Holland but

apart from some third cousins we are thousands of

miles away from most of them. Our friends are

scattered over several continents also, with most being

in Australia, where we lived for many years. So apart

from a few local friends, most of our relationships are

long-distance ones and we rely heavily on the Internet

and the telephone to stay in touch with all the people

we care about.

3. Senior cohousing There are quite a few established cohousing communities in the UK. But almost all of

them consist of families and people of mixed ages. Cohousing that is designed

specifically for the over-fifty age group is already well-established and thriving in

Denmark and there is now a huge interest in it in the USA but in England this idea is

only just coming over the horizon. The benefits of cohousing for elders are enormous, since a group of compatible

elders designing a cohousing project can tailor it to suit their particular needs. Here is

an article that explains this in much greater detail, along with a list of useful

references.

. 4. About us

5. Our story

For many years, we had a dream of creating an intentional community which would also

function as a retreat centre. So, back in the early 1990s, when we were living in Melbourne,

we started to create this from scratch. We bought thirty acres of clapped-out grazing land in

the foothills of the Australian Alps and proceeded to turn it into a viable homestead. We

built a house ourselves out of mud bricks and recycled timber, created a garden and an

orchard and planted hundreds of trees. And there was a constant stream of people visiting

us, to help, to rest, to taste a bit of our dream.

But after a while, especially once the last of our children had left Australia, we started to feel

that we were in the wrong place. I had long been homesick for my native England, which I

had left at the age of twenty-two. Plus one of my daughters needed some temporary help

with childcare while her partner went back to school. So we put in a caretaker and moved to

an apartment in San Francisco, where we lived for two years.

After those two years were up, we were not sure what we wanted to do. By then we knew we

no longer wanted to live in Australia. For a few months, we joined an existing intentional

community in Texas, but the setup there did not suit us because although we enjoyed the

community feeling we yearned to have our own private living space. My ever-growing

homesickness for England led to a few months of what Sky called 'reality testing,' during which

I house-sat for some friends in Devon while Sky went back to Australia to sell up both the

country property and our townhouse in Melbourne. The idea was for me to see if I really

could hack an English winter and for us both to feel more deeply into where we wanted to

spend the rest of our days. The decision was soon made. We bought this little cottage in north

Devon and have lived here happily ever since.

We are still fit and healthy. We still travel a lot and stay involved in a whole lot of projects. But

what we keep asking ourselves and each other is this: do we want to 'age in place' here in our

cottage? Or is there a better option? Ageing in place is great for the old folks in our village

who have their families around them, but we don't. Once we reach the stage where we

cannot so easily get around—and especially when one of us dies—the prospect is increasing

isolation. Senior cohousing would appear to fit our needs very well indeed. And it would

provide that perfect blend of privacy and community that we both love. We would be among

people with similar interests, people with whom we could have meaningful conversations.

And we could build in provisions for care if and when the time comes that either of us might

need it. So what we want to know is: is there anyone else out there who shares our dream?

Anyone who would like to live in community with like-minded people and yet have a place of

their own and be able to share resources and live lightly on the Earth, right to the end of their

days?

We are keen to meet other like-minded over-fifties who are interested not just in cohousing

but in getting together to create a cohousing project specifically designed for Third Age eco-

living and located somewhere in the south or south-west of England, preferably in a rural or

semi-rural area with good access to a town.

If you have read this far and you are still interested, please get in touch. Email me on and

marian(at)elderwoman.org - replacing '(at)' with the @ sign - and please put cohousing' in

your subject line to ensure that your message avoids my spam filter.

Marian Van Eyk McCain January, 2015