First Rain Storm of Autumn

While autumn will not be starting for a few more days officially, I feel that it has arrived here in Southern California. Early this evening, we had our first rain storm of the season after many long months of dry hot weather. The thunder and lightning alarmed my animals and my dog spent a great deal of time with her eyes scanning the ceiling as the sound of rain beat overhead. I wonder if my dog even knows what rain is? She is only two years old and hasn't experienced rain for the past four to five months. She might have forgotten what it is. I dutifully turned my computer off while the lightning hit outside, but honestly, this was not that bad of a storm. While we took out candles to be prepared, neither my husband or myself thought that we'd truly need them. Compared to what the poor people of the gulf coast have suffered, we can hardly even call this a storm.

For me, the rain is most welcome. When the rain falls, I like to make a pot of green tea and sit on my front porch settee to watch it fall. Natural entertainment at its finest. About the only drawback is that I was hoping to do another load of chiles in my dehydrator tomorrow. There are a few more cayennes and piquins ripening on the chile plants and I'd like to get them dried. I used some of my new homemade habanero powder in my soup for lunch. I'm not sure if I will grow the red caribbean habaneros again, but they do have a good heat level when it comes to using them in a powder. I thought that the soup was very good with the powder added to it.