Henny Penny Farmette

As winter approaches, it seems counterintuitive to embrace the cold and dark, especially as we hurry indoors to seek light and warmth. But winter brings the gift of time and circumstances that force us to slow down, rest, reflect, and renew ourselves.

Here on the Henny Penny Farmette, the honey bees remain in their hives until their DNA tells them early spring has arrived. The hens slow their laying of eggs during the cold, dark days of winter. And the soil in the gardens rest as the sap stops flowing in the trees during the months when winter’s chill comes on early and leaves late.

During the current age of telecommuting or arrangements that include some work from home, lying an extra few minutes in bed until the house warms can feel luxurious. After a hearty, healthy breakfast or lunch, a thirty-minute winter stroll across a field, down the road, or to the mailbox and back elevates the feel-good chemicals in your brain, stimulates your sense of well-being, and helps you feel restored.

The winter season is perhaps the best time of year to reflect on impermanence and cyclic change. Start a journal in which to capture your thoughts, hopes, dreams, questions, and ideas about self-evaluation and soul reflection. Learn something new. Sense the charismatic presences around you in nature. Allow your own radiance to flow outward to others.

Winter is a time to think about what you do and don’t want in your life and how you’ll clear the clutter. Is it a person, a habit, a thing? What is it that you want to leave behind in the old year and what do you want to manifest in the coming new year? Before winter is over, make an intention to manifest your deepest desire.

Use the the dark days of winter to reflect on your physical health and mental well-being. What bad habit could you eliminate? What lifestyle change would be healthier for you? How might you gain more self acceptance and self love? What does a picture of great health for your body and mind look like?

Snuggle up in a chair with a warm throw and read a good book when the winds are howling and the cloud ceiling is low. Reading stimulates the mind. Expand your horizons with an arm-chair travel book. Enjoy a fictive trip through a novel. Solve a mystery. Read about the history of food and try a new recipe. The possibilities for indulging your interests are expansive.

Practice mindfulness. Let new ideas emerge from the depths of your consciousness. Winter is the perfect time and you can do this practice in any setting. Take advantage of the gifts the dark offers.

If you enjoy reading about country living topics, check out my series of cozy mysteries available online and in bookstores everywhere.

During the global pandemic of Covid-19 (caused by a novel form of the corona virus), each of us are challenged to stay healthy, protect our loved ones, and not contribute to the spread of the disease.

Many of us have family members and pets to care for. Some of us have grandparents and babies living with us. Others might have to rely on the outside help of caregivers who must enter our homes. Sheltering in place can be taxing on the physical, mental, and emotional levels, especially with many people to care for and much to do even as we remain hyper vigilant about protecting everyone.

When it’s difficult to find a moment to ourselves or when we’re living alone and finding the isolation hard to bear, suggestions for self-care might be just the thing to give us each day a new focus.

Order a copy of The Self-Care Planner for ideas about how to care for yourself. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Self-Care-Planner/Meera-Lester/9781507211649

Self-care is a powerful tool for having a successful, meaningful, and joyful life. Regularly taking time to nourish your body, mind, and spirit helps you be more productive, improves confidence, enhances self-esteem, and ensures more meaningful relationships. You can start on any day in any moment.

Self-care isn’t selfish, it’s an act of love.

While you await the delivery of your copy (which might be delayed during this pandemic), observe the following mandates for protecting yourself and your loved ones and stay informed.

1. Don’t touch your eyes, nose, or mouth with your hands.

2. Use a bent elbow in which to cough or sneeze. If using a tissue, dispose of it after use.

3. Wash hands thoroughly and often with soap and water. Use hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol when soap and water are not available.

4. If you are symptom-free but exposed, self isolate for 14 days.

5. If you have symptoms, call your doctor for advice.

6. Follow the rules set forth by your local and national authorities and community public health leaders.

A NOTE ABOUT THE SELF-CARE PLANNER

The book is a unique weekly guide to prioritize YOU. You’ll discover activities for Body, Mind, and Spirit that reinforce each month’s empowerment theme. This one-of-a-kind guide lets you start caring for yourself at any time, on any day, during any week or month of the year. You will set monthly intentions and create your own workable schedule. You’ll find space at the end of each month to journal about personal insights, breakthroughs, or successful achievements.

Using THE SELF-CARE PLANNER, you are answerable only to yourself. Take time, have fun, and enjoy the process of becoming more  self-aware and healthier as you achieve the life you want. This book is a perfect gift for yourself or others who often do too much but especially now with new demands on you.

The book may have activities that involve others in your community. For those activities wait until local and national public health authorities say it is safe to mingle with others. For now, however, the nation has been instructed to practice social distancing.

Stay well, practice basic protective measures, and look for the positives. Life goes on. Honor and bless your body so it may carry you forward in good health to achieve your dreams.

Many of us have busy lives that involve responsibilities of family, community, job, learning, and leisure activities. Unfortunately, all too often at the end of that list is personal time to attend to our own health and well-being.

The life you want is within your reach. Get started manifesting it with this self-guided planner

Self-care is a powerful tool for having a successful, meaningful, and joyful life. Regularly taking time to nourish your body, mind, and spirit helps you be more productive, improves confidence, enhances self-esteem, and ensures more meaningful relationships.

Self-care isn’t selfish, it’s an act of love.

In my newest book THE SELF-CARE PLANNER, I’ve created a unique weekly guide to prioritize YOU. You’ll discover activities for Body, Mind, and Spirit that reinforce each month’s empowerment theme. You will set monthly intentions and create your own workable schedule. You’ll find space at the end of each month to journal about personal insights, breakthroughs, or successful achievements.

Using THE SELF-CARE PLANNER, you are answerable only to yourself. Take time, have fun, and enjoy the process of becoming more successful, self-aware, and healthier as you achieve the life you want. This book is a perfect gift for yourself or others who do too much.

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If you enjoy reading about health and wellness, check out my other books that include RITUALS FOR LIFE, HOW TO LIVE WITH INTENTION, and MY POCKET MEDITATIONS, among others.

All Meera Lester books are available online and in traditional bookstores everywhere.

More than 150 rituals for sound mind, strong body, and meaningful connections to the people around you

Packed full of ideas for creating the life you want

Anyone can find peace, clarity, and focus…all it takes is a moment

My hubby and I took a much-need break from the farmette work  to celebrate the Fourth of July at the Alameda County Fair. The fair food smelled delicious (funnel cakes, tacos, burgers, barbecue, and baked goods). We’d already eaten a large lunch so we hurried to the grandstand to see the horses.

Where I grew up in rural Missouri, our horses were not as elegant looking as those beautiful race horses. Ours were draft horses, tall and strong and bred for pulling a hay wagon or doing other farm work. I felt a shudder of exhilaration as I watched those race horses take to the track and run like the wind.

Giant sunflowers in bloom in the Henny Penny Farmette vegetable patch

Friday and Saturday, we did more farmette chores. On Sunday, we attended a lovely “coming of age” celebration. The event was hosted by our Indian friends whose son and daughter had reached the age marking that milestone. Their son received his first dhoti (a male garment symbolizing his transition from boyhood to manhood) and their beautiful daughter wore for the first time a gorgeous silk sari accessorized with gold jewelry. The affair was presided over by the temple priest and involved the immediate and extended family. Although I chitchatted with everyone, I managed to taste almost every dish offered in the all-vegetarian Indian meal, which was yummy!

Next up on our July social calendar is hubby’s birthday. We so seldom have time off to just kick back and enjoy life that we are planning to relish his big day with a trip to the zoo, a sky ride to see the 360 degree-view of the Bay Area, and dinner at Sotto Mare in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood (great Italian seafood). We’d previously planned to take some time off to travel to Spain for this birthday, but he got four new jobs to oversee, ending all hope for that trip this year. Maybe next year.

Wild red plums make a tasty sweet-tart jam

Today is Monday and we’re back in the workday rhythm of our farmette. There’s a fence to put in so the chickens have a safer area to free-range, a shed that needs more waterproofing and shelves installed, and tons of plums and apricots to pick. These, I’ll dehydrate and make into jam. I’ve got to harvest honey and put supers on the hives, too, so it’s going to be a busy week.

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If you enjoy reading about gardening, farming, keeping of bees and chickens, along with a good mystery and some delicious recipes for home grown goodies, check out my Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries: A Beeline to Murder, The Murder of a Queen Bee, and A Hive of Homicides (available online or in bookstores everywhere).

Novel #1

Novel #2

Novel #3

When an old crown on a back molar disintegrated, I knew I’d have to get it fixed. What I hadn’t anticipated was a stress fracture in the tooth next to back molar. An infection followed. Then, after ten days of antibiotics, I was scheduled for a root canal. Stressed out doesn’t quite reflect my consternation. I felt like I was losing my mind.

Mindfulness practice on a nature walk will have you noticing small things like a bee on lavender

Intending to be centered and calm, I took my seat in the dentist chair and waited for the pain medicine to kick  in. I focused on Buddha breathing (during inhalation, the belly rises; it falls during exhalation). Gazing inward and upward in relaxed awareness, I saw a circle of light. My attention flowed into its center.

While thus absorbed on that light and the patterns within it, I lost sense of time. The two and one-half hours in the dentist chair seemed to have happened in a single moment. And on the other side of that experience, I felt peaceful and upbeat.

During a mindful walk, stop to smell the roses

Harvard researchers have further shown that mindfulness practice changes the brain’s structure. While stress contributes to a variety of illnesses, mindfulness practice counters stress and bestows numerous physical and mental benefits. Studies show that mindfulness lowers blood pressure and heart rate while fostering a happier mood, stronger immune system, and greater sense of well being and self-esteem.

Mindfulness is paying attention to what’s in the moment, rather than fretting about a tomorrow (which you are not promised) or stressing over the past (which you can do nothing about). Mindfulness means you can let go of negative self-talk, worry, and stress and, instead, explore your  interiority and inner silence. Or, outwardly focused, you can absorb what your senses are revealing about the environment around you–observing but not judging.

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Learn more about living life with intention or engaging in  meaningful meditation practices with my wellness and spirituality books. All are available online and in bookstores everywhere.

More than 150 rituals for sound mind, strong body, and meaningful connections to the people around you

Packed full of ideas for creating the life you want

Anyone can find peace, clarity, and focus…all it takes is a moment

Hachiya persimmons are delicious when they ripen to softness

I awoke today intending to collect some persimmons and gather in the ripe pomegranates from my garden But the news on my local TV station made me think twice about going outside to work.

The Bay Area air quality would be four times as bad as in Beijing (where many wear masks to avoid breathing the particulate). I’ve lived in the Bay Area since the 1970s and can’t remember suffering through such terrible air quality. Gardening was out of the question.

Our Bay Area air is so awful because of the “Camp Wildfire” that recently broke out up north. The inferno stoked by high winds was so fast-moving that it pretty much destroyed the town of Paradise (near Chico). Those winds also swept the smoke southward into the Bay Area. Although I live spitting distance from Mount Diablo, I couldn’t even see the mountain yesterday or today.

What I could see was a blood-red ball hanging in an opaque sky. Never saw the sun look like that.

Not only are wildfires raging on in Northern California. With Southern California’s Woolsey fire threatening Malibu and a section of nearby Thousand Oaks, I worry about family and friends in SoCal. Also, I am praying for those affected by the recent Thousand Oaks mass shooting. Not only are those folks grief-stricken, they now have to evacuate as fire threatens their community.

The rainy season in Northern California runs from November to April, but unseasonably warm weather (in the 80s F. last week and 70s F. this week) has been the norm. Fire danger remains high until the rains come.

I hope firefighters in our Golden State and everywhere else know how much their work and sacrifices are deeply appreciated.

Ripe pomegranates hang heavy on the trees this time of year

The smell of smoke outside is overwhelming. So while nothing gives me greater pleasure than being outside working in my garden, I won’t today. Not when I can’t breathe.

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From here on the Henny Penny Farmette, I write nonfiction self-help books about health, wellness, and spirituality; and for fiction, I write mysteries that incorporate aspects of farmette life like keeping chickens and honeybees and growing heirloom fruits and vegetables.

Find all my books at Amazon.com, through Barnes and Noble, at Kobo Books, and elsewhere online or in traditional bookstores everywhere.

All available online and in bookstores everywhere

Anyone can find peace, clarity, and focus…all it takes is a moment

More than 150 rituals for sound mind, strong body, and meaningful connections to the people around you

After the news of the recent passing of my only sibling and the last member of my nuclear family, I moved an old chair beneath a plum tree on my Henny Penny farmette near the hives to  listen to the hum of bees and read the Georgics of Virgil.

For me, reading verse serves as a point of departure to an inward journey where I can find calm, utter silent prayers, seek forgiveness, spiral forth blessings, and come to terms with what has been left unspoken. In time, I find it is possible to surrender to what is and accept what cannot be changed.

Some plant flowers in remembrance of a deceased loved one. Pictured is the “Honor” rose

Beneath the dense canopy of the plum, I lost myself in reading the ancient verses of Virgil. The reclusive Roman scholar wrote his long poem of Georgics in four parts around 70 BCE. Virgil’s verses draw readers into pastoral landscapes where he describes nature, the seasons and their attributes, as well as the fullness and sadness of life.  I believe my brother would appreciate these verses  that show loss as an integral part of the natural world and our human existence. For me, Virgil’s poetry connects the mundane with the lofty.

Virgil’s verses speak to repetitive cycles–nature’s seasonal shifts occurring over the landscape, man’s domesticated animals going about their business, bees gathering pollen and nectar to bring forth honey. Some see these verses as primers on agricultural work and animal husbandry. What I derive from these poems is a loftier meaning: as much as change comes into our lives (whether through sorrow, suffering, loss, or war), the big picture is this–life goes on and there is sweetness for us to find.

Bees need water (as most living creatures do) to sustain life

In Georgics IV about beekeeping, Virgil writes:

“First find your bees a settled, sure abode where neither winds can enter ( winds blow back the foragers with food returning home)

Nor sheep or butting kids tread down the flowers,  Nor heifer wandering wide upon the plain

Dash off the dew, and bruise the springing blades . . . .

The above is from another translation, but A.S. Kline offers a beautiful English translation from the Latin of Georgic IV, see, https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/VirgilGeorgicsIV.php

Virgil grew up in the rural Italian countryside where the peasantry lived close to the land. When the civil wars during Virgil’s lifetime caused many farms to go into states of disrepair and farmers to lose their land, Virgil’s family farm became a casualty of the times.

It’s believed that he subsequently regained his farm but the experience of loss had become indelibly imprinted in his consciousness because his writings deeply reflect the sadness of those who’d suffered loss. Perhaps because the reclusive bachelor and scholar did not enjoy robust health himself, Virgil wrote that the greatest wealth is health.

Honey is known as an ancient elixir for health

I thought about that as I sat listening to my bees and the sounds of nature around me. My brother had enjoyed good health before marching with other Marines through Vietnam’s fields of Agent Orange. In the last year of his life, health issues concerned him. But he didn’t dwell on that–farmers and soldiers seldom do.

I’m sure if he’d had a choice in the matter, he’d have preferred to breathe his last breath while fishing, surveying the expanse of a newly harvested field, or walking in the woods. Instead, he passed away while removing a sapling that a neighbor wanted pulled from her flowerbed. Death found him lying under an expansive sky on side of the road, the sun on his face, his breath gone, his heart still.

Angels cue us to live life with gratitude

Perhaps, he was ready. Fields and woods, rivers and streams, farms and fresh air have always called to me and my brother like some ancient voice in our DNA.

As children during this time of year in late summer, we would race to the nearest watering hole to wade, throw rocks, or fish. Never uttering a word, we could spend hours sitting on a river bank in dappled shade, poles in hands, eyes on bobbins hoping for a nibble. Or, we would lie in a field of tall grain watching the clouds merge, split, and float across the expansive sky until they’d disappeared completely. It’s how I imagine my brother’s soul departed that fateful day–guided to the Great Beyond by a Spectacular Unseen Hand.

In the days ahead, I will take comfort in reading words written by my favorite observers of life like Virgil and philosophers of the world, both past and present.  I will read favorite passages in sacred texts. And I’ll refer to my own books on meditation and ritual. I hope the process empowers me to come to an untroubled, tranquil acceptance of the culmination of his life. Ready to face what will be my destiny, too. May you rest in eternal peace, Brother.

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More than 150 rituals for sound mind, strong body, and meaningful connections to the people around you

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0719HHVRJ/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Anyone can find peace, clarity, and focus…all it takes is a moment

http://tinyurl.com/y9vfw2t9

Since the dawn of civilization, humans have engaged in repeated, meaningful acts or rituals. Anthropologists who have observed and studied rituals across cultures point out that rituals vary greatly and are used for many reasons–from healing grief, reducing anxiety, invoking dreams, setting intentions, or enhancing confidence. See, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-rituals-work/

More than 150 rituals for sound mind, strong body, and meaningful connections to the people around you

While social scientists have not fully addressed precisely how rituals work, research shows that they do work.  Whether it is the effort we put into the repetition of steps or the degree of commitment we have for doing the ritual, rituals add meaning to activities that we use to cope, feel confident, and mark milestones as well as passages in our lives.

From a personal standpoint, I’ve seen rituals of many cultures in my travels, and even participated in some. In Rituals for Life. my goal was to show how even the simplest act of awakening at dawn, for example, when yoked with a ritual (such as folding hands and facing the sun or spending a moment in mindfulness) can impart meaning and set the tone for a new day.

I used rituals that included declaration of intention, visualization, and other techniques to manifest my farmette and other elements of the ideal life I wanted–a life of living close to the earth, finding meaning in everyday activities, and writing books on topics I love.

In Rituals for Life, the complexity of the rituals in each chapter varies–some are quite simple; for example, practicing mindfulness as you drink a glass of warm water with lemon for your health. Alternatively, a ritual for embarking on a personal empowerment retreat has a few more steps. Instead of going through the motions of a daily routine without giving much thought to what you’re doing, adding a simple ritual can layer in meaning.

Whether you seek vibrant mind-body health, more gratitude, techniques for grounding, a sense of peace, financial security, or personal empowerment and  renewal, you’ll find chapters on these topics and others as well as sequences of rituals at the end of each chapter.

Rituals for Life is an easy-to-use, self-help book for anyone who desires a more meaningful and mindful way of living. This hardcover book is the perfect starting point for creating a fantastic new year or new life. To see more, click on the URL: https://tinyurl.com/yctdczpq

Surprise someone you love.  Tuck this little volume into the holiday stocking of a friend or loved one. Or, treat yourself.  Enjoy! –Happy Holidays to all, from Meera Lester

In college, I often washed my then waist-long auburn hair with apple cider vinegar to keep the locks healthy and shining. And years ago, I discovered the decadent pleasure of a hot rosemary oil treatment and scalp massage that uses lavender oil.

If you grow your own herbs, making hair-care products couldn’t be easier.

Lavender is an old-time favorite herb for homemade beauty products

The following are simple recipes you can make with home grown herbs and essential oils available in health food stores.

Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse Recipe: 4 cups of warm water to 1 cup apple cider vinegar. After you’ve washed the shampoo out of your hair, use the vinegar water as your final rinse.

Alternatively, you could add a couple of ounces of your favorite herbs like lavender, lemon balm, chamomile, or rosemary sprigs along with scented essential oils to impart shine and fragrance to your hair.  Rosemary is also good for promoting hair and scalp health.

Rosemary Rinse Recipe: 4 cups of boiling water poured over 2 ounces of rosemary springs. Let set overnight under a lid or cover. The next day,  strain out the rosemary sprigs and add to the liquid 10.5 ounces of apple cider vinegar and 10 drops of rosemary essential oil. Wash your hair, rinse, and as a final step pour through your hair the rosemary rinse.

For dry hair and scalp, create an oil treatment that you can do once every three weeks or a on a monthly basis. You’ll need rosemary, lavender, and a bit of tea tree oil (which possesses chemicals that may kill bacteria and fungus and reduce dandruff).

Hot Herbal Oil Treatment: 2 drops each of the following herbal oils–rosemary, tea tree, lavender–in 6 tablespoons of coconut oil. Thoroughly combine in a dark bottle, seal, and store. When you are ready for your hot oil treatment, sparingly apply the oil to strands of dry hair until all is lightly coated, not saturated. Cover with a hot towel for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the towel and wash with shampoo as usual.

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If you love all things natural, country, and homemade AND you enjoy a cozy mystery, check out my novels available online at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and other retail outlets as well as in bookstores everywhere.

For my newest novel, A HIVE OF HOMICIDES, click on the link: http://tinyurl.com/ya5vhhpm

Available NOW

The second book in the Henny Penny Farmette series

Meera Lester’s debut novel in the Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries

Welcome September! I’ve got lots of exciting news for this month. First, A HIVE OF HOMICIDES, the third novel in my Henny Penny Farmette series of cozy mysteries, comes out on September 26. I’ll be doing a giveaway on Goodreads.com. But there’s more . . . .

“Lester’s sensitive portrayal of Abby’s struggle with her wounded psyche raises this traditional mystery above the pack.”–Publishers Weekly

The newest offering in the Henny Penny Farmette of cozy mysteries

This month marks the launch of an  exciting Barnes & Noble/Kensington Publishing “BUY 3, GET 1 FREE” sale throughout September. And my novel, THE MURDER OF A QUEEN BEE, is among the cozies featured! And there’s still more.

Everyone who buys a Kensington cozy mystery from the B&N in-store display or any Kensington cozy mystery from BarnesandNoble.com between 9/5/17 – 10/5/17 and registers their purchase at http://sites.kensingtonbooks.com/kensingtoncozies/BN/ will be automatically entered into Kensington’s “Cozy Mystery Bonanza” sweepstakes for a chance to win a $300 value gift basket.

–        The grand prize ($300 value)

–        Kensington Cozies Digital recipe book

–        A STORY TO KILL by Lynn Cahoon

One grand prize winner will be selected after the sale has concluded.

ABOUT QUEEN BEE: Murder claims the life of a free-spirited friend of ex-cop and farmette owner Abigail Mackenzie after a New Age Cult leader takes over an abandoned nudist camp in the mountains near Las Flores, California. Abby teams up with the dead woman’s brother to discover the killer’s identity even as an old boyfriend in Abby’s life shows up unannounced with a hidden agenda.

ABOUT HIVE: Abby suffers emotional challenges following the attempted murder of her friend Paola Varela and the death of  Paola’s husband. She seeks help from a new doctor in town while piecing together the clues to smoke out a killer. But as Abby attempts to heal and  help Paola  recover, she unwittingly places them both in the crosshairs of the killer.

See the full Publishers Weekly review at, https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-61773-917-0

The novel that launched the three-book Henny Penny Farmette series of mysteries is BEELINE TO MURDER.

BEELINE TO MURDER started theHenny Penny Farmette mystery series

ABOUT BEELINE: Abby is drawn into solving the murder of the celebrated pastry chef who buys her trademark lavender honey. The search for the murderer takes her through the lives of several of the town’s eccentric characters, exposing secrets along the way until she unmasks the killer among them.

Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity to stock up on your favorite cozy authors books this fall with the exciting offers from Barnes & Noble and Kensington.