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Hi Grandma Donna, thank you for posting even when it is very hard for you; your message us important and appreciated. 

On the weekend, my schoolfriend was visiting from interstate. We went to a flower festival that's an annual event in a nearby city here. The highlight for me was seeing the families - with grandparents, parents, teenagers, young children and babies - out enjoying the day. People from many different backgrounds,  who chose to enjoy the day rather than be intimidated.  It was heartening.

Someone will know more than I do about Pork Pies, but I know the pastry sides are built up vertically,  rather than pressed into a pie dish. They are individual pies, as far as I'm aware.

Sponge cake is a light, airy cake made with eggwhites only (no yolks) which is often sliced into several layers between which jam and cream are sandwiched. My Grandma was good at making Sponge Cake - it's  a real skill in itself.

Pudding is a moist cake-like dessert that is served warm or hot and is usually steamed or cooked in a bain-marie. It can be self-saucing. Sticky Date Pudding is a favourite  here in Australia. 

Washing up to me is everything from scraping the plates right through to putting the dishes away,  wiping the kitchen down and sweeping the floor. To my husband, it means washing the dishes only :)

I have some thoughts swirling in my head in response to your observations about the world. But I need to think and pray some more before I comment.

Washing up to me is either cleaning up in the bathroom before sitting down to dinner (face/hands) or doing the dirty dishing after dinner (which would necessitate clearing the table & stove).

Pudding is a soft dessert which is eaten warm or cold. It has the consistency of a soft yogurt. Its ingredients are usually milk, flour or cornstarch, sugar and eggs (though I leave those out). It can be flavored in a number of ways with chocolate and vanilla the most common. It's made on the stovetop though boxes of dry mix to be combined with milk are available. 

Whenever the world gets too big for me I remind myself that my brain simply cannot take this level of information and feel safe.  When it feels like the world is ending, or even perhaps just my country, I remind myself that people have felt this way before about many things.  Some of those things did end and some didn’t.  It’s true that right now we have more information and more quickly and you are right Grandma Donna, we need to not give them the views and the clicks.  I’ve stopped apologizing for not knowing everything that is going on and all of the small details.  If someone presses me about not knowing I explain that I simply can’t know everything and I am no less worthy as a human being for not “keeping myself up to date”.  I worry for my grown children and for the children not yet grown, because they’ve been ensnared and breaking free is nearly impossible with such young brains.

My task, as I see it, is to live small.  I need to care for my loved ones and my home.  I need to find beauty and joy in the smallest of things.  The older I get the more I realize how little time I have left and how important it is not to let that time be stolen by companies who have no interest in my well-being.  Living small resets my heart and reminds me of what is important to me.

What is a pork pie like the ones on All creatures great and small and how do they make them?  I once saw a show that toured a bakery making pork pies, they formed the pastry over a dish or mold and then wrapped paper around it and tied it — I think this helps it hold it’s shape when baking and maybe makes it easier to transport?  The pastry must be rolled thicker than we roll it for pie crust!  Then it was filled and topped with more pastry.  If I remember correctly, this is different than a pork pasty, which is more of a hand pie.

What is a sponge or sponge cake where you live?  Here in the western part of the USA a sponge cake has whole eggs in it, although they are often separated, with the yolks being mixed with the sugar and the whites being stiffly beaten and carefully folded into the batter to lighten it.

What is pudding where you live?  Pudding is a dessert dish, either thickened with egg yolks like a custard is, or with a starch such as corn starch.  It can be completely smooth, like a chocolate or butterscotch pudding, or it can be make with rice or tapioca, giving it texture.  As a child, purchased puddings might be added to our lunch boxes.  Tapioca pudding is a favorite in our home, as it has the milk and eggs for nutrition and uses less sugar than many other desserts.

What is washing up?   For me, washing up can be cleaning my hands before a meal, or doing the dishes and cleaning up after the meal, as in I’ll do the washing up.  But my family just calls it doing the dishes, which to me is only one part of washing up — the counters and stove also need to be cleaned, the dinner table needs to be cleared and wiped, the leftovers need to be put away, the sink needs to be thoroughly rinsed after the dishes have been washed, and the floor needs to be swept!

Oh Gr.Donna its like you have read my heart.

I usually only watch news morning and evening and equate them with the morning/evening newspapers of the past. It's all sad, bad, frightening news and I feel the need to stop watching any news but I also feel the need to be informed. Sometimes I just don't know what to do.

My garden is finishing up for the year, I am assembling the things needed for winter shut in the house projects.  I have to stay busy so I won't dwell on the problems of the world.

I am reading a book that someone in this forum talked about, "The Dirty Thirties" it really makes me think. I am learning from it and am so thankful we don't have to go thru those things, each day brings its own trouble we don't need to go looking for trouble.

Grandma Donna wrote, 

Thank you Kellie O, Margaret P, Kimberly F for commenting  and reply in to the questions.

Joyce C, I like what you wrote about being thankful that we don't have to go thru those things( what people went through in the great depression) , each day brings its own trouble we don't need to go looking for trouble.  How true that is!  As I get older I realize that it is wasted time worrying for something to happen and robbing me of the time I had before something bad could happen.  Maybe that will motivate me to stay on top of my one room proper cleaning method and change my thinking to, I might as well be ready for when it happens instead of worrying that it might happen because each day brings its own trouble. (I wish we had emojis here. )  Donna

Pork pies are made using hot water crust pastry, made with water and lard heated in a saucepan and the strong flour mixed in. It is used hot, working quickly, to line a pork pie tin or pressed against a mould to make a raised pie shape. The filling is minced pork shoulder and belly, and diced bacon with sage, thyme, nutmeg, mace, salt and pepper. The pastry lid is added and pinched to seal it, and a small hole made in the top centre to let out steam. The pie is glazed with beaten egg, then it is baked. When the pie is cold, pork jelly or pork stock with gelatine is poured in through the hole to fill any gap between the filling and pastry, and chilled to set. 

Victoria Sandwich is the popular sponge cake in Britain. The butter, vanilla extract and caster sugar are beaten with a wooden spoon until light, then the lightly beaten eggs and flour gradually and gently folded in with a metal spoon. Raspberry jam is used to sandwich the top and bottom slices of the cooled cake. 

Proper English puddings are made with suet, tied in a floured cloth and boiled, or made in covered pudding bowl and steamed. There is Christmas pudding with rum or brandy sauce, and suet pudding, spotted dick plum duff, jam roly poly, sticky toffee pudding, golden syrup or jam suet pudding served with custard. There are savoury steamed puddings with suet pastry, steak and kidney pudding, beef and ale, rabbit or game puddings, and leek and cheese, 

I shall print out your definition of washing up for DH, though he is unlikely to change after 46 years. I plan, shop, prepare, and cook, and serve the meals, and he washes up most of the items, the ones he sees, using lots of washing up liquid and very little care, leaves them to drain, and considers it done.