I really feel that LOVE should be lifted up and held aloft this month. This can be a transition month for families – as we notice the colder mornings, the darker evenings and the swell of the summer months subsiding. I am going to miss the summer fun and my children as they go back to school. I've enjoyed the pace and connection that this break has provided us all.

Ever more reason to bring in the Love and feel its comfort as we move to a new season. A warm jumper moment.

For those of you with school aged children, the new school year can involve new relationships with new teachers, new rhythms and timetables for new year groups, new expectations and pressures. Exciting yes, but maybe demanding on our limited reserves. We need the pressure value handy and ready to deflate after a busy day – such a different energetic rhythm than the more fluid summer months.

As the weather changes and we begin to retreat, slowly, back towards to cave - what love do we need to offer our gardens, too? What needs nourishing and replenishing after the summer sun? What needs some tough love - a cut back or a lop off? How has your garden fared recently, and what does it need now?

My garden is still offering beauty and interest - it deserves some attention in these last few weeks of sun. I woke up to the evocative, autumnal smell of a neighbour's bonfire this morning - marking the turn of seasons and the need to clear. But not yet in my little space. I'm going to enjoy the butterflies that are still appearing in droves and watch the last blooms of the rose bush. It's worked hard for me this year.

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The end-of-the-summer-blues can hit hard, and as the teacher-trained child of teachers, this month always marks the start of a new year for me, too. Am I ready? What will happen this year? What do I need to achieve?

This year, I'm going to work against this story. I had a particularly busy early part to 2024, so I'm going to resist the urge to think about achievement and progress right now. In fact, I'm working against the habit of a lifetime and trying to slow down: focus on less and bring quality to the things I do. Watch this space/work in progress/experiment...!

And what of us mothers? We have held it all together all summer – a patchwork of childcare and work and activity and rest - and being out in the world, enjoying the fruits of our labours from the rest of our year. We switched Off. But we were never really Off, just quite a different kind of On.

Are there months in your family where you need to insulate yourselves a bit more than usual? When you need to wrap that warm jumper of love around you or your family?

The resources this month are a smattering of ideas broadly connected to love - how we learn about loving relationships, how we sustain those we are in, when we know we might need more love, and who and how we might create it. There are some ideas about communication, loving kindness, oxytocin and love languages.

Right now, in the world we live in, beyond our bubbles and our communities, it's time to lead with love, not fear. The riots in the summer brought that into sharp focus, no? The desire to care for and nurture others is something that comes with motherhood. We are the experts. Let's show them how it's done.