Here comes Hurricane Frances bearing down on us with about 60 mph winds. We listen to the weather reports and constant updates and alerts and find, as everyone else does, that it becomes a bit nerve-wrenching. The storm is moving so slowly and is so huge, it's not at all doing what they predict. The same was true of Hurricane Charley, although he was a much smaller version of Fran (I feel like I can call her Fran since she's been threatening now for a few days). He was coming straight at us and then suddenly turned and went onto shore about 100 miles south of us. Of course he was not as large and a much faster mover, so the only comparison is that no one really knows when it comes down to it what these storms will do.

Anyway, we spent yesterday picking up all outdoor stuff in the gardens and putting away all patio furniture just to limit the projectiles in Fran's path. We had planned a hurricane party for today since my sister and her husband came to visit from Maryland. What we hadn't planned on is Fran deciding she wanted to party too! So the party is cancelled until tomorrow as we hunker down and wait this thing out.

The good news is that we just had all of our trees and palms trimmed about a month and a half ago so our gardens won't be contributing to flying debris. Also, we've kept the grass a bit longer at the water's edge. That should be helpful for the moorhens and ducks as they try to find a safe place for their babies to ride this out. And they have babies...the moorhens have three little ones and the ducks have about five right now. We're now hearing that the projected rains of up to 20 inches will not happen as Fran wears out so there shouldn't be any flooding in our yard. The lesson here is that as we finish our landscaping in that area we'll be sure to pick native plants and those that are not affected by salt water. All in all we're hearing we'll be pretty lucky again with Fran. Of course Ivan is now forming and they are saying he'll follow the same path. There's another four or five days before they'll be able to have a good grip on what he will do. In the meantime, we'll wait this one out and keep our fingers crossed. I usually sign off with Happy Florida Gardening but since Florida is pretty much engulfed by Fran I'll just sign off with good luck to all. We're thinking of you.