Welcome to our July Newsletter. Firstly, if you are in Yorkshire then do get the Yorkshire Post newspaper on Saturday July 9th and you should see my home featured in the Magazine section. They took some great photos so I hope it will be a good piece about what Morel and I have done with our buildings and new extension. For those of you living across the world with, sadly, no immediate access to Yorkshire I will send on to you a photograph of the feature and the Healthy Home tips that they should also be including, after the article has appeared.

Readers of my last newsletter may remember the red cabbage found at the bottom of my fridge. What should have been more than dead was actually pulsing with new life as a new cabbage was growing out of the stub that remained in my fridge drawer, thanks to the PiMag water (Nikken's 'living' water technology) it had fallen into. I rescued it by bringing it out into the sunshine. I thought you might be interested to see how it developed - new seeds grew within the leaves as it continued to flourish. Once out of the safety of the fridge though it dried up as I failed to nurture it enough and forgot to top up its supply of PiMag water. Sadly it has passed on (to the compost heap) but here is a photo.

If you have visited me in either of my abodes in London or Yorkshire you will most likely have met Poppy. I want to call her a cat, for that is what she is, but really she is more like another person than a pet. She has a wonderful personality and is a regular commuter on the GNER Leeds to Kings Cross train. I have a back-pack pet carrier with wheels which forms Poppy's personal transport. It is very unusual and makes other passengers laugh. Poppy is a very good traveller and enjoys looking out of the window. She sits on a little pad on the seat and does not move even when I have to leave my seat. Poppy is an enthusiastic user of the Nikken Wellness products. She particularly enjoys the PiMag water. We started drinking it a couple of years ago, until then Poppy would never drink any water in the house unless it was in a fountain. Then one day she discovered the PiMag water in a glass on my desk and started to drink it. Since then she has been stealing our water ever since. No glass is safe in the house! It's funny how cats know what is good for them. I did not tell her about the water, she just discovered it for herself. See Poppy's own story in a slideshow. Poppy would be very pleased to hear from other pets although she is bit terratorial and is not keen on meeting them in person!

A two-day weekend of top tips for Feng Shui, helathy home principles, creation of wellness and sacred home, renewal through finding your purpose, meditation and wholefood cooking with a fun group of women. A real treat! £160 including all organic food.The first one was held in my Yorkshire home in June and was wonderful. Feedback included: "Fantastic, inspirational and nurturing event"; "A really enjoyable and different experience"; "Great to have the opportunity to take some very important 'me' time to replenish, feel stronger and not feel guilty!"; and "Meeting like-minded others to share our hopes and aspirations". Just being here is really very healing and restorative. Having Rose join us from the Brahma Kumaris centre in Glasgow to lead meditation sessions was really very special. I have two more dates this year when I can offer the weekend again: this month July 30-31 and the first weekend in September, 3-4th. Rose will join us again on both dates. We have a large country garden on a hilltop with magnificent views and there are many things to eat in and around there. In July the local wild bilberries should be ready for us to gather fresh for breakfast. If you would like to see some images of the June weekend then take a look at the photo album on the homepage. Do contact me very soon for a place as this is obviously a small group. Cut and paste this link for the photographs. http://homepage.mac.com/ginalazenby/PhotoAlbum25.html

Yes we do have days in the UK when we get warm and I have certainly experienced a few of these in Yorkshire in my new conservatory where it has been a treat to be more than warm! You folks elsewhere in the world where you regularly experience hot weather through the summer are used to creating spaces that cope with heat. Generally in the UK we are more concerned with holding in the warmth. So wherever you are in the world, let me share with you a few things that help to keep a room cool. Firstly, colour is a good start: red actually makes you feel warmer by having a physiological effect on you so take away some of the red cushions, throws and rugs and bring in the white and creme to calm the atmosphere. Blue is a colour that has been proven to have an influence on our experience of temperature and actually makes you feel cooler. The great thing about having rugs, throws and cushions is that you can change the feel of a room very easily for each season. Secondly, a room will feel cooler with the addition of water. You can bring in water in art with paintings & posters of lakes and seascapes or actual water in a fountain or bowl. I love to have bowls of water around the house and I put fresh flowers and leaves in too. Adding a lighted candle also adds a sacred quality to the space but the bowl of water aids the cool atmosphere.

I had the good fortune this week to attend the AGM for this charity. The Janki Foundation for Global Healthcare was formed 8 years ago to support the Global Hospital & Research Centre in Mt Abu, India and was named in honour of Dadi Janki, the joint head of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University. The Global Hospital integrates modern medicine and spirituality and serves a community of 90,000 people with at least 80% of its services given free. I have visited this hospital seeing for myself the signs indicating the location for the Intensive Care Unit alongside the Homeopathy department and Yoga Therapy. I had the privilege to sit in a room and meditate with the hospital's chief medical officer prior to a presentation on the hospital's amazing achievements. In addition to supporting this ground-breaking hospital, the Janki Foundation now serves the healthcare field in a wider sense to promote a deeper understanding of healthcare. One of Dadi Janki's key philosophies is that 'whole-person healthcare is provided by whole people' and very much supports the movement towards integrated healthcare. The Foundation's latest flagship project is the launch of the Values in Healthcare programme which aims to give much-needed support to those working in the health sector. Having taken a close interest in health for most of her 90 years Dadi Janki feels the future of medicine is the best of orthodox and the best of complementary coming together. In a lecture by Earl Baldwin of Bewley following the AGM, Lord Baldwin gave some very fascinating insights into his personal and parliamentary experience of integrated healthcare and concluded with the encouraging assertion that there are an increasing number of doctors and nurses who really do want to understand better the forces of healing.