A Rainy Day in Florida

My patio on this rainy day.

I woke up this morning to the wonderful sound of rain. Lots of rain. Torrential rain. Typical Florida gully-washer rain. Our zillions of little frogs are happy campers. Our trees, shrubs, grass and flowers are happy, happy, happy. My dogs, Shani and Dude, are not so happy. They love playing in water, pretty much any water, but not rain. Go figure.

Well, this is our first rainy day since Hurricane Isaac deluged the Gulf Coast a few weeks back. So we really needed this rain. Now the air smells squeaky clean. I'm lovin' it. According to the meteorologists, we're supposed to have rain all day today and tomorrow too. Yea! Yes, I'm definitely smiling.

This is a great day to sit inside and watch the rain. A great day to read. A great day to write another blog post. So here goes, this is my post about rain.

A few years back my husband and I and our three dogs (Maggie, Nikki and Shani) lived in the Texas Hill Country. We had a house on the top of a hill with a gorgeous view of more hills. Also, we had a whole family of deer who visited us daily for a breakfast, lunch and dinner of feed corn. Our dogs loved it there. They'd stretch out on the patio and watch the deer. Our dog, Nikki, would go wander among the deer and then settle down with them for an afternoon nap. The one thing we didn't have in those Texas hills was rain. In the year and a half we lived there, we only had three days of rain.

Dude getting out of the rain.

The thing I remember about that Hill Country rain is the temporary little stream that crossed our driveway. Tiny frogs would jump into the water and be whooshed downstream. What a ride! I have to admit that it looked like fun.

I was born and raised in southern California where rainy days were few and far between. A rainy day meant my best childhood friend, Debbie, and I would wade/walk home through the water racing down the gutters. We'd arrive home in wet shoes, soggy clothes and big smiles. Rainy days were the best of all.

These days, older and a bit wiser, I hope, I still love the rain. I can happily sit and watch the rain for hours on end. This is the kind of day where it's fun to sit and do nothing at all.

In honor of a rainy day, check out the cool rain books listed below. As anyone who follows my blog knows, I love to make lists of cool books to read. So hopefully you'll all find some great rainy day books that you'll want to read.

Rain Fiction (in no particular order):

Hot Rain by Kat Martin*
A Garden in the Rain (MacLeod Family) by Lynn Kurland*
Texas Rain (Whispering Mountains) by Jodi Thomas*
The Lonely Silver Rain (Travis McGee) by John D. MacDonald*
Rain and Other South Seas Stories by W. Somerset Maugham*
Desert Rain by Elizabeth Lowell
Rainshadow Road (Friday Harbor) by Lisa Kleypas
Barefoot in the Rain (Barefoot Bay) by Roxanne St. Clair
Nights of Rain and Stars by Maeve Binchy
The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard
Rain by Leigh K. Cunningham
The Art of Dancing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Fire and Rain by Diane Chamberlain
Drink the Rain by Cynthia Davis
Cry of the Rain Bird by Patricia Shaw
Where the Rain is Made by Keta Diablo
Rain Song by Alice B. Wisler
After the Rain by Nicola Thorn
In the Midnight Rain by Barbara Samuels
A Gentle Rain by Deborah Smith
Bittersweet Rain by Sandra Brown
Tears Like Rain by Connie Mason
Falling for Rain by Janice Kirk
Rain by Kieran Nicolas
Keeper of the Rain by J. P. York
Listen for the Rain by Heather Atkinson
And the Rain Came Down by Terrie B. Cambridge
Dancing in the Rain by Kathryn Woodhill
Rainy Days by Lory Lilian
Winter Rain (Jonas Hook) by Terry C. Johnston
Caribbean Rain (Manny Williams, Bk4) by Rick Murcer
Thunder and Rain by Charles Martin
The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton

*Rain Fiction I've read and loved.

I'm sure I've missed a lot of great rain fiction. So please feel free to add your favorites in the comments below. This is also an opportunity to list any rain fiction that you've written.

Note: All of the books above are available in eBook format.