Things Hula Loves-"Do They Know It's Christmas"

Sure, I like lots of other Christmas music, but this is one of my favorites. Throughout the month of December I can generally be busted belting out "Feed the World" while driving to and from work on any given morning. I'm not sure if I love it because the message is still relavant today or if it brings back warm memories of big hair, fingerless gloves and ripped up sweatshirts. I don't care what anyone says, George Michael is still one of the hottest gay men around, and look, Bono really does have eyes.

Things Hula Loves

Fresh blackberries, handpicked from the fence rows of my friend's house. The bushes run along the borders of her thirty acres, and they are dripping with wild blackberries right now. With the help of her and her two young sons (and a dog that kept eating out of my bucket), I picked about two gallons of them Saturday night. I'm thinkin' scones, a cobbler and maybe a little jam. Some of these are headed for the freezer, so I can whip out a juicy little reminder of summer during the winter months.

The best part? I came home from pickin' without any chigger bites. Can I get an amen on THAT?

Things Hula Loves

Honey fresh from our neighbor’s hive.

Besides being a warm and caring preacher to his congregation and a wonderful person, Brother E. is also a bee keeper. For years he has tended his hives, showed us how they work and shared with us the proceeds of his hobby. His honey is one of my favorite things about summer. It is golden and delicious.

Not to mention it’s made from our backyard pollen so it’s good for our allergies. It’s all natural and oh so delicious. The flavor varies a little from year to year, depending on where his bees decide to play. See those tiny little bits at the bottom?

That’s the stuff that comes with the honey as it’s scraped off the honeycomb by Brother E.’s own two hands. Other folks might be bothered by it, but not me. Personally, I think we all go way overboard on the hand sanitizer germ phobia thing these days. And the three second rule is more like the twenty second rule in our house, especially if I happened to have dropped a shortbread cookie. As daddy says, a little dirt never hurt anybody. Those little specks in the bottom of the honey jar aren’t dirt. They’re just a sign that everything in that jar is the real deal, and I can’t wait to smear it on some biscuits. I can eat a fancy schmancy dessert with the best of ‘em, but in my opinion, nothing beats a buttered biscuit dripping with fresh honey. Well, except maybe a homemade shortbread cookie.

Things Hula Loves

Every day when I look out the dining room window or pull in and out of our driveway I see a sea of Black Eyed Susans in my neighbor's yard. Their front flower bed is just a large mass of yellow. I can't help but smile when I see them. To tell the truth, I'm kinda glad they're on vacation, and we have to feed their dog this week. It gives me an opportunity to wander right by them. And take a picture or two.

Things Hula Loves

Friends who have chickens…because I get fresh eggs. I love the fact that the texture is mottled and that they come in various shades of tan and beige.Some are speckled. Some are not. They remind me of when I was a kid and mama bought eggs from my school bus driver. On Friday mornings when I climbed the bus steps I gave Hazel Schaffer egg money and on Friday afternoons I climbed off the bus with two dozen brown eggs. Until I was about eight years old I thought all eggs were brown.

Fresh from the hen eggs taste so much better than the supermarket kind, and they’re really tasty on a Sunday night when you fry them up, throw them on fresh from the bakery bread with some provolone cheese, a slice of salami and a little ham and then grill them in a buttered skillet. Hubby is a well done guy. I like mine a little over easy so the yolks run a little when you bite into them. By the way, Hazel’s doing fine. As so often happens in a small town, I ran into her at the funeral home a couple of years ago. She’s retired, but she doesn’t have chickens anymore. Something about that seems wrong.