We are so thankful we don't reside or have a house on the market in Florida now.   At the gym two people told me that they just closed on their Florida properties in the past couple of weeks.  There's increased Floridian traffic on our roads and in the Ingles supermarket and Walmart parking lots.  Just like after Katrina demolished homes and displaced families,  many families from Texas and Florida are being forced to relocate.  After having been through Charlie, Francis, and Jeanne back in 2004, we found ourselves watching updates on Irma and empathizing with residents as they boarded up their homes and prepared for the worst.  Our forecast called for two days of rain with 25 mph winds and gusts up to 50 in the higher elevations.  Cliff stacked the lawn chairs in the shed so they wouldn't end up in the creek.  I removed the wind chimes from the porch and tucked potted plants safely against the house out of the wind.  There are reports of trees down and residents without power in other areas east of us.  Luckily we only received 1+ inches of rain and a few hours of breezy conditions these past two days.

Dreary, cloudy, misty weather.........good time for Chicken Soup with Fennel and Rice and garlic bread.  The actual recipe calls for orzo, not rice, and I love orzo, but it has gluten so I substitute long grain brown rice.  Schar makes a gluten-free baguette for spreading garlic butter and toasting under the broiler.

                                       Mmmmmmm!