Hello my friends,

How are you? I hope all is well.

Summer has passed its peak. August has arrived, and the land and late summer light are already beginning to show signs of the seasonal changes ahead. Have you noticed?

I drove my dog Lara to a dog field we regularly hire the other evening. We were a little early, so I pulled up beside a nearby field gate and paused for a moment. The scene was beautiful. It was early evening, and the golden light stretched across fields lined with newly bound straw bales, reaching back towards the Edgehill woods. Blackberry bushes surrounded the gate, heavy with fruit soon to be ready to pick.

I felt the first whispers of autumn.This is truly a late summer scene, I thought.

Although perhaps many of us meet this seasonal turning with a little sadness as the long days and light evenings gradually begin to fade, late summer offers us much cause to pause, marvel and give thanks.

As we enter August, we cross the halfway point between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox, traditionally marked in these isles by the festival of Lammas.

Lammas sees the beginning of the harvest season, particularly the first grain harvests. The name comes from the Old English hlafmæsse, meaning “loaf mass”, as the first bread made from the newly harvested grain was blessed and offered in gratitude. Across many European traditions, ancient harvest customs honoured this sacred moment of receiving the gifts of the earth and acknowledging the nourishment that would sustain communities through the coming months.

Although our lives may look very different from those of our ancestors, we can still take this moment in August as an invitation to pause and give thanks for the abundance that surrounds us.

The fruits of nature’s patient work are becoming visible now. Seeds that were planted months ago have germinated. Shoots have broken through the earth. Leaves have unfolded, blossoms have opened, and fruits have slowly ripened. The hedgerows, fields and gardens around us reflect the culmination of months of sure and steady growth.

And perhaps all that we see in nature now is inviting each one of us to ask:

What are the fruits of my efforts this year?

How have I grown through my experiences, challenges, learning and practice?

Sometimes the year has been difficult. We may have faced obstacle after obstacle as we tried to bring our hopes and aspirations into being. Yet even then, there are blessings to gather. There are lessons to acknowledge, strengths we have discovered, and moments when support arrived in ways we could never have anticipated.

I have experienced this myself recently.

Many of you know about Lara, my new rescue dog from Spain. She is a large girl whose size rather disguises her young years and her naturally exuberant, playful spirit. She has come into a completely new world – new surroundings, new people, new experiences and new expectations – and she is learning how to navigate all these changes.

It has not always been easy. I had imagined long walks through the countryside with my new companion, something I loved so much with my previous dog Ellie. Instead, with Lara still learning and adjusting, our walks need to be carefully planned.

One day, at a time when I was feeling particularly challenged by all that Lara presented, help arrived seemingly out of nowhere.

A few months ago, while walking with a friend without Lara, I spotted a beautiful dog and stopped to chat with the person walking him. As dog lovers know, dogs are wonderful socialisers. We began talking, and I mentioned the challenges I was facing with my new rescue.

It turned out that the dog walker’s wife is a professional dog walker and trainer. “She’ll do anything for you,” he said. “She’ll walk her, check in on her, help you out however she can.”

We exchanged numbers, and this lady has been an absolute gift. She loves Lara, understands her, and is not fazed by her energy. Lara has her own special greeting for her now – an easily distinguishable bark when she sees her car, a sign of the bond that Lara already has with her new walking friend.

What an unexpected blessing that meeting was.

I do not usually walk in that place, nor at that time of day. And yet somehow, on that morning, I was drawn there with my friend. And help came in the most unexpected and unsought way.

Life often provides for us like this, doesn’t it?

Not always in the way we imagine. Not always according to our plans. And yet often in exactly the way we need.

The first harvest reminds us of this wisdom: to pause, to gather in, and to recognise the gifts that life has already presented us with. Sought and unsought, acknowledged and – until now – unacknowledged.

There is a beautiful Sanskrit word, prashada, which carries the meaning of grace, blessing and a gift received with gratitude. In the yogic tradition, prashada points towards an attitude of openness – a willingness to recognise that life is constantly offering, nourishing and supporting us in ways both visible and unseen.

The first loaf offered at Lammas was an expression of this understanding. The grain was not viewed simply as something humanity had produced through effort alone, but as something received through a much greater relationship with the earth, the seasons and the forces of life itself.

This is very much aligned with the Ayurveda perspective on the blessings of each season, and the promise of seasonal junctures. 

Lammas is a time when the energies of the cosmos are asking us to bring this same awareness – of the gifts of life – into our own lives. This makes it the perfect time to ask ourselves questions like:

What gifts have arrived that I did not expect?

What support has appeared when I most needed it?

What fruits of my own efforts can I pause to acknowledge?

August is also a natural time for gathering our energy before the next seasonal transition. It invites us to pause in order to do so. And Ayurveda invites the same.

Ayurveda reminds us that as summer’s expansive qualities begin to shift towards autumn, we benefit from slowing down a little, nourishing ourselves and preparing for the changes ahead.

After months of outward movement, activity and expansion, we are invited to gather ourselves inward.

Rest, gentle Yoga practices, peaceful walks in nature, seasonal nourishing foods, soothing teas and moments of quiet reflection all support this process.

Ayurveda teaches us that we are not separate from nature but deeply woven into her rhythms. The wisdom of seasonal living is not something new to discover; it is something ancient within us that we are remembering.

Our ancestors understood something that modern life has caused us for the most part to forget: there are seasons for effort and seasons for rest, seasons for planting and seasons for harvesting, seasons for reaching outward and seasons for gathering inward. It is therefore perhaps not by chance that we holiday in August. A practice inherited from other times, when the lives of those who have gone before us were effortlessly more attuned to nature’s rhythms.

So as August unfolds, let’s pay heed to the message of this late summer season. Let’s build on the practice we have been cultivating together all year – recognising and following nature’s lead. August brings us the perfect point on the calendar to perhaps take a little time out for our own first harvest.

May this season of the first harvest remind us of the beauty of receiving, the wisdom of slowing down, and the grace that surrounds us when we pause long enough to notice.

With love and warmth.