Meson properties are believed to have close connection to the fundamental theory, QCD, and have been studied for a long time both theoretically and experimentally. In this talk, we study the recent research activities in this field and consider mainly the deeply bound pionic atoms and the $¥eta$(958) mesic nuclei. We report the new possibilities of the spectroscopic study of the pionic atoms using the (d,$^3$He) reactions. We consider the (d,$^3$He) reaction at finite angles to produce the atomic states with different angular momenta and on the odd-neutron nuclear target to produce the pionic states in the even-even nucleus which has a well-known neutron distribution. As for the $\eta$(958) mesic nuclei, we summarize the recent research activities on the $\eta$(958) meson property in nucleus and report the possible formation of the $\eta$(958) mesic nuclei by the (p,d) reactions in detail.