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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

My parents were busy on a project in their cottage in a hamlet in the Welsh hills, and they didn’t go out or listen to the news for a while. They missed the Gulf War completely, heard nothing about it until it was over. The News broadcasts seem to be designed to stir up anxiety and panic. 

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 chopped pork shoulder and belly. 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 cooked, pork stock is poured through a funnel into the hole to fill any gap between the filling and pastry, making a layer of jelly when cold.

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. 

Goodness, I feel for you. I feel for us all. Especially the young people. These are becoming very hard times. I have been trying to avoid the news, except for the 6 o'clock news, although last night I said to my husband that I don't know why we are watching it. It is all home invasions and violence. It is horrible. 

With that in mind, I have only been online to check the odd blog or to look up plants or recipes. I'm going to go offline for October with you, and only use my phone as a phone. 

Some positive things I have been doing is I have been rediscovering my library. How lovely it is to read a book instead of looking at a screen or television. 

I've been listening to the ABC (Australia) radio of a morning whilst I deep clean a room. This week is the kitchen. It was looking quite unloved and dusty. Once I get going it is very satisfying to get things spick and span. I've been polishing all the timber surfaces with a mixture of olive oil and vinegar and my old cupboards are coming up beautifully. 

I've also been investigating how to create more native habitat for small birds, lizards, insects and frogs. I went to a native plant nursery this morning and selected a couple of plants that fairy wrens and lizards might like to shelter in. All my gardening is usually food related so it is nice to encourage some wildlife.

I've been thinking a lot about my childhood these last weeks and what I enjoyed about those times and trying to bring some of those simple pleasures back in to my life. I've smiled at the fairy's washing in the grass early in the morning. I've watched and ducked out of the way of the nectar feeding parrots on my dog walks, and inhaled the smell of flowering plants first thing in the morning when the nectar is sweet and the air is clean. 

Grandma Donna, I have never posted on your Forum before but I wanted to say thank you. Thank you writing a post even when you didn’t feel like it because it has been an encouragement to me and many others. Thank you for continuing to focus on what’s important and inspire others to do the same. I live in Australia so I do feel a little bit detached from some of our world’s problems but that general sense of overwhelm is still very present. Without my faith I would be lost. As humans we were never created to live the way the majority of society does now. 

A technology free October sounds like a perfect plan and I’m really going to give it a go. Spring is in the air here so there is much to keep me busy in the garden!

I have also loved reading the other comments here - thank you everyone for showing me I am not alone 

I love the doggie pictures. :) First the barking, and then the loving. Such a wonderful picture of how it can be if we just choose to. 

I am so glad that we had a month of advance notice because I keep thinking of things I do online, and now I have time to cut them out or adjust them. I follow the monthly reading at Agatha Christie dot com because I love Agatha Christie. That's one online thing I won't quit doing, but I have the October book, so I don't need to go to the site for any reason during the month. 

The heat means our full crop of tomatoes doesn't start until September. I made tomato paste for the first time yesterday, and it made me so happy because it made me feel like I can take care of my family better. :) I have watched Clara's video about making tomato paste on YouTube, but I used an Italian recipe. I cut up and seeded my tomatoes, and pureed them in the blender because I wanted the nutrients from the skins. I reduced the puree in a pot on the stove for about an hour and a half, and then I salted the puree and finished it in the oven in a baking dish greased with olive oil. It came out perfect, and I put it in a canning jar and covered the top with olive oil, and put it in the fridge. It's supposed to keep for a month or two in the fridge. The house smelled wonderful while it was cooking. :) 

I don't know anything about pork pies, except that they sound delicious! I've never made a sponge cake, but I have made sponge bread. Pudding is that stuff my family always wants me to make. :) It's milk sweetened, thickened, and flavored, and then cooled in the fridge. Coconut tapioca pudding with strawberry or rhubarb sauce on top from the garden is the favorite, but chocolate pudding is a close second. Banana is third. Washing up is doing the dishes. 

P. S. I wanted to include a photo of the grevillea I got this morning to attract nectar feeding birds as I'm not sure if they grow in the United States and they are quite beautiful. 

I distance myself from all the bad world news, I think there is no point in worrying about it all as I personally can't control the various governing bodies, good and bad, of each country, and the do-gooders so unless it's absolutely shattering to my own life, I try to ignore it.  Yes, you do need to know what's going on in the world but also not dwell on things as they appear - and remember media are the worst virus of all in that they sensationalise everything;  if we'd had that in the world wars we'd all be shooting ourselves - so don't worry about what you can't fix personally, just concentrate on what you can do and that is live your life, look after and care about your own family and/or problems and let someone else take care of the rest.  We can't fix everything that's broken around us.  

Pork Pies are an English thing so I can't comment never having had one although I do believe specialty shops sell them here.  There is a great description above from Janet W.

Pudding?  This can be traditional puddings or even just dessert as most kids would say what's for pudding these days so it could mean anything at all.

A sponge could easily be a lovely sponge cake but on the other hand it could also mean a cleaning sponge.

Washing up means only one thing here - and that's 'doing the dishes' in which case my dishwasher does it for me.  

I won't be doing no-tech October for the simple reason it's the only way I can keep in contact with relatives and also do my family history.  However it'll be interesting to hear how others manage it.  We're not really "screen" people so it doesn't take over our lives as it does for some.

Michelle K, they are beautiful, aren't they - having just done a road trip up north and back, I was in awe of the natural beauty of the native plants and trees as we driving along, as well as the wildlife - sadly not too many alive, but that's the way the world is these days.

Michelle K, your wood looks beautiful. And what a lovely flower!

Joyce C, about five different books came up, all with the title of the Dirty Thirties, when I went to put it on hold at the library. I chose the wrong one first but got the right one on the second try. They are an interlibrary loan, and I haven't got either of them yet, but I'm looking forward to it. It's good to know that you're finding it so valuable. 

What a touching post (((hugs))). Yes things certainly are changing.  At first I didn’t think I would do the tech free month but as you mentioned it this time, it seems like a good idea.  It wouldn’t be 100% due to some work things but I bet I could omit about 80% for a month. 
I believe a sponge for baking is like a sourdough starter. 
And washing up growing up was always “wash up” before eating or such a thing. We lived on a ranch so wash up to the elbows and sometimes the face and neck. 
Keep well ~ and thanks for posting. 

That is beautiful, Michelle! Do you know the cultivar name?

Thanks for another fine post, Donna. I know we all appreciate each post, especially when you don't feel like doing it. I fear that when October is over, though, you might decide you prefer a technology-free life and no longer want to post.

To me washing up is what I'm doing until I get a new water heater, taking a sink bath.

I had a thought about October. I don't know how many of you are familiar with The Mass Observation Project in the UK. The Mass Observation Project (MOP) is a long-running social research initiative in the United Kingdom that began in 1937. Its goal has been to capture the everyday lives, thoughts, and feelings of ordinary people in Britain—creating a kind of "people’s history" from the bottom up. The aim wasn’t just to get factual data, but to gather feelings, habits, and personal reflections. Over time, the archive built up a very rich picture of how people lived, what they valued, and how they responded to both everyday routines and extraordinary events. I thought it would be interesting if some of us wanted to do something like this during October, keeping a journal about what is going on in our lives during our no-technology or low-technology time. We might write about what challenges we encountered and how we solved them. We might write about the joys we encounter when we use less technology and the insights we gain. I thought it might be beneficial to journal it because some of the simple joys of life we might not remember if we don't write them down. Here are a few sample excerpts taken from the Mass Observation Archive across different decades. 

World War II (1940s)

• “We stood in the shelter all night. The sound of the bombs was dreadful, but Mrs. James kept everyone laughing by telling silly jokes. It was strange to be cheerful while the world was falling down around us.”
• “The blackout is a nuisance. I keep bumping into the furniture. I sometimes wonder if the Germans are laughing at us stumbling about in the dark.”

Post-war Britain (1950s)

• “This morning I went to the butcher’s. There was still a queue, though not as bad as last winter. People complain about prices going up, but at least we can buy more freely now.”
• “We had our first television delivered. It’s a marvel, though I can’t imagine watching it all evening instead of listening to the wireless.”  In the U.S. they did something similar with:

   Comparable Efforts in the U.S.

  • The Federal Writers’ Project (1935–1943)
    Part of the New Deal, it sent writers and interviewers all over the country to document everyday life. They produced American Guide books for each state, and collected oral histories — including interviews with former slaves and everyday working people.
  • The Library of Congress “American Life Histories” (1936–1940)
    This project gathered around 2,900 first-person accounts from ordinary Americans about their jobs, families, and daily lives during the Great Depression.
  • You can listen to or read some of these for free at the Library of Congress online.

Kellie O. - it is Grevillea Firedrops. 

Bless you for posting even when you don’t really feel like it GDonna, the world does seem like a very cruel place at times and, whilst I don’t want to close my eyes & ears to the suffering of others, I am aware of how important it is to protect my own peace of mind in these worrying times. It’s the same here in the UK when a few people are preaching hate for others and preying on people’s insecurities.

We recently rescued a 6 year old dog and it’s so heart warming to see how love & care is changing her life, just the basic needs of decent food and shelter with a big old dollop of love and in just two months she seems like a different dog, it’s two way traffic too as she has mended my broken heart after losing my little spaniel in January and has brought such joy back into our home.

Janet has given you a good description of how a pork pie is made, the hot water pastry is delicious and these can be made either individually or a larger, family sized one.

A sponge is a Victorian sponge cake filled buttercream and or jam.

Our favourite puddings at the moment are fruit crumbles, plum, apple or blackberries which are all in season currently in the UK and many can be picked for free in the countryside. The fruit is chopped and a bit of sugar added if needed, the crumble topping is made up of plain flour into which butter is rubbed and again sugar is added, I also add some spice in the way of ground cinnamon plus some rolled oats which makes the topping nice & crunchy. The crumble is then baked until done. 

We don’t have a dishwasher so washing up is what is done after every meal, dishes washed and dried with a tea towel, the work surfaces and oven top cleaned down too, after years of living with me my husband knows what needs to be done :

Washing up is when you come inside from doing dirty outdoor work on a farm, and need to give your hands a good scrubbing, usually before sitting down to dinner.  It takes longer than simply "washing your hands" (which brings to mind a quicker washing, such as when your hands are basically clean, but you still wash them before handling food.) Washing up includes cleaning under your fingernails, and might also include a quick face washing if you feel sweaty.

I've only ever heard doing the dishes called "washing up" on British TV shows.

Unrelated:  Anyone have any suggestions what I could use this salvaged crock for?  It's too small to be very useful for fermentation for me, but it's thick and heavy and old-fashioned feeling, so I'm looking for an excuse to keep it!  The inside glaze is foodsafe.

GDonna, I hope that you have a rest filled and peaceful October. The Holy Spirit has been leading me to stop the amount of technology I view. We haven't watched television in eight years and that time was only for an important event. In all honesty, we gave up television viewing some 25 years ago. We have a television but it just sits. Our source of news in on our tablets, which can become addictive without discipline.

A few months ago, I purchased some Word Search books that are Biblically based and I have enjoyed doing those. I do read a lot, do genealogy and sew when my eyes cooperate. 

Washing up means several things to me. It can be a reference to washing up the dishes, washing one's hand's and face or body or washing up one's delicate laundry.We even say, "I am going to wash up those vegetables and fruits."

Thank you for a thought filled post. It has been a couple of weeks of much prayer. 

Donna thank you for such a heartfelt post and the reminder that there are more of us that are good than evil. I don't watch the news, it was a choice I made over 20 years ago.But it doesn't keep me from hearing some of the bigger events. I just can't  hear about all the details of all the horrible things happening in the world. It breaks my heart and I can do nothing to change it. But I do have control of what happens in my house and this gives me peace of mind.

I will be joining you and the others on. the forum in October. Once a week I will be using the zoom feature on my phone as we have family Bible study once a week with my daughter stationed in Japan. Besides that I am hoping to get more reading, knitting, gardening, housework, and learning done. Leaving the technology behind for a month I think will be an eye opener . I don't feel like I use that much technology but time is a thief and I don't care to waste any more of it. I know I will miss hearing what is going on in your home and everyone on the forum.

Michelle K.- Your cabinet looks beautiful and I love the old canisters you have on disp

Thank you for this post, GDonna, I really needed it. I've been reading your blog for months but this is my first time commenting. My husband and I are on our annual vacation at a rented cabin in the north woods but it's still so difficult to avoid the news, whether on the radio or just people talking loudly about current events when we're in a store.

I've been planning my own technology fast for October. It can't be a total break because of communication with work and my adult children. But I can step away from browser use and avoid most of the distracting and upsetting aspects of the internet that way. I'll be paring down my use to a few apps for things like communication, banking and maps. My banking app won't keep me distracted for long! It's important for me to have lots of things to occupy my time so I'm making lists of big and small projects. I'll be trying to complete a sweater I've been knitting for months, washing windows before the cold weather, canning, planting garlic, etc.

Pork pies are individual pies with vertical sides and a hole in the top. I've only seen them once years ago at a bakery in Wales. My husband had one and said it was very good but I was too scared to try it!

A sponge cake is made with whole eggs. My mom made them sometimes for birthdays.

Pudding is a soft, custardy dessert, usually chocolate or vanilla flavored, made with eggs or cornstarch as a thickener. Sometimes it has rice, tapioca or stale bread in it. Those puddings might also include dried fruit.

Washing up means washing your hands and face in the sink.

Hello Miss Donna, thank you kindly for this timely post. We are living in uncertain times for sure. I agree with your observations. ????

Tea, is the crock large enough for dough to rise? That would be my first thought to use it for that. 

The other thing that comes to mind is it possible to use that safely in an oven either to actually cook or just to keep something warm. That would need to be researched as I don't know offhand. 

Grandma Donna wrote,

Welcome to the forum as new to commenting.  Margie R, and I hope you enjoy your North Woods Vacation.  :)  Also Carolyn H, is new to commenting and I am happy to see that you are joining the technology break.

I am happy to see that we have more joining the October Tech break and some are considering. :)

It should be interesting to see how your month went when we get back together.  Take notes!

Thank you Janet w for describing the pork pies and you described the type of sponge that I have been wondering about when you called it a Victoria Sandwich with the raspberry jam on top and in between layers.  That must be a very common sponge.  Here in the U.S. a sponge cake is similar to what we call a angel food cake but our sponge cake is denser than angel food cake. For the angel food cake only the whites of the eggs are used and the sponge cake the whole eggs are used.  It is something more like what we use from Strawberry Short cake. 

I love learning how our countries have different names for food, must be careful when we order food, might be surprised what we get :)  Donna

I have loved Nella Last's Diaries (based on Mass Observation).  I recommend them for their detail of every day life.  Our library has one of them but there are three books which are available on World of Books. - in the UK)  

Margaret P., Thanks for both of those suggestions.  It would be big enough for dough to rise in when I'm making a single loaf, so maybe it will become my dough rising crock.

It's somewhat heat safe, because it's the inner part of a vintage electric crockpot that stopped working, but I'm not sure whether the heating wires that curled around it got as hot as an oven.  I might decide to risk it, and see how it holds up.

Although I abhor the violence and it is very disturbing, my faith and prayer are keeping me calm.  I admit I'm glad my parents aren't alive to see how things are going now.

I have two very opposing sides on the political spectrum in my extended family.  We have to let love guide us there, and choose our words with care.  So far, our family is unfractured.  It is not easy.

I've never had a pork pie nor seen one, but I've read about them in books set in the UK.  A sponge to me is a cake such as GDonna describes.  I make a lemon sponge cake with thick lemon custard topping for Easter sometimes, that is delicious, but takes a lot of eggs.  A pudding is as others from the US have described here - a thickened sweet dairy dish, soft, like yogurt.  I prefer mine cooked (in a saucepan on stovetop) as opposed to the instant pudding mixes.  The term washing up is and was almost never used in my family and friend circle, unless meaning to clean up oneself at a bathroom sink.  

Until I retire, I will use computers and cell phones five days a week, but I limit myself already on television and movies that I can stream or play with my DVD player.  I often go two weeks without watching a thing, sometimes longer.  If I can keep up with it, I will try to note what I do during October that is an older or simpler way.  

Thank you, Donna for the wonderful, heartfelt post.  I say "Amen!" to everything you said.  Thank you so much for sharing your heart.

About 10 years ago I was sort of a "news junkie" and watched so many news reports, often on YouTube.  I soon learned that it was stealing my peace and making me anxious.  I cut way back and have cut back even further recently.  Now, I usually listen to the news on NPR at the top of the hour once a day in the morning.  I also occasionally listen to one of their programs if they are interesting or relate to my life in some way.  My faith in the Lord in very strong and when I begin to feel anxious about some craziness out there I remind myself that He is still in control.  That brings me comfort.  I often wonder why such terrible things happen but I continue to trust.

I am going to join in the no-technology month of October as much as I can.  I admit to being hooked on my tablet and spend too much time on it.  I am currently deleting some of the apps that I have on it and will continue to "clean house", as it were, during the rest of this month.  I communicate with family and friends on my tablet and also pay bills there.  I will probably continue to read email but I am unsubscribing from as many as I can.   I plan to have a weekly movie night and watch a film from the '30's or'40's.  I will also do a lot of reading, knitting and sewing. 

I, too, have read Nella Last's books. They are wonderful.  Maybe I will try to record my on-screen days as Becky Sue K mentioned. 

Now, to the questions :  I admit my ignorance about pork pie and sponge cake. I have a couple of '40's cookbooks and they have recipes for sponge cake.  One lists sponge cake for Boston Cream pie (which I love).  Maybe I will try one of the recipes next month.

Pudding - that sweet, custard dessert that many others have mentioned.  I grew up eating the box mix kind but have made custard a couple of times. 

Washing up - I guess because I watch so many English TV shows and read books set in the UK, I think of washing up as doing the dishes and tidying up the kitchen.  Ha ha!!  

Grandma Donna I love your wording of quietening and settling the home. I can almost hear it taking a deep long breath and letting it out slowly until the calm atmosphere arrives. I feel much the same as you about things and thank you for your wisdom about not arguing in the hopes of changing someone's mind or attitude but instead role modeling our own truth with grace. Some people are our point of reference. For me that has been people in my own life, Rhonda Hetzel and you yourself and the communities around them. This week I've had yet another attempt to switch off the news and stop going down rabbit holes. I had found myself getting so indignant, upset and incredulous and it wasn't doing me any good and feeling powerless. I remember people laughing at horrible jokes and comments too. I have a family member who I called out once by saying that's horrible and not funny but it left me shaking a bit. It was awkward but I'm braver now. I'm surprised how hard it was to stop watching the news and You Tube channels of the news/opinions but even after 4 days I can feel the positive benefit. For October I will be only watching my favourite home making lifestyle You Tubers and bloggers. The rest of the time I have many crafts and projects plus reading books to occupy me. Spring is here in New Zealand so I have gardening and the decking to restain. Plenty to do and I'm looking forward to it.

Kimberly F... How beautiful your comment is about living small etc. I'm going to carry that thought thank you. Living small is actually living big because of the ripples of goodness it creates.

I meant to suggest using the crock to ferment vegetables, use as a pet waterer (it helps keep the water cool), and my husband once drilled holes in the bottom and used it as a planter.

I went to my knitting group this week. Nearly every woman there said they ( and their husbands) are not longer watching any News in any format now. They are doing happy things likei crafting and gardening and have firmly shut the world out.

I struggle if someone around me blasphemes , talks smutty or with innuendo.

I make trifle sponges as well as a plain sponge. Both are the whole egg, sugar, cornflour and flour, baking powder but different ratios.

Pudding. I look at pudding and desserts differently. Pudding is hot.... Apple crumble, apple shortcake ( use other fruits too), steamed puddings, upside down fruit cake pudding where you flip it and the fruits on the top, rice pudding, custard.       Desserts are cold.... Pavlova, trifle, cheesecake,jelly, mousse.

Never made a pork pie but have seen them.on UK programmes.

Washing up is what I do after all the cooking.

This morning bottled apples, squeezed orange juice and put in freezer and currently have.lemon curd cooking.

I saw a documentary recently that said in the 1800s (UK) poor people would spend 60% of their income on food.

Tea S.. your crock can be used for pickled onions. With a plate on top. I've had pickled onions I did for someone last a whole year in a crock. They're under the vinegar solution of course

That is beautiful, Michelle! 

I can say that ignorance can truly be bliss.  One morning I was happily cleaning my upstairs.  The cats and dog were laying on the bed in the sun.  Then I went into my craft room for a bit to paint some wood pumpkins for an upcoming craft faire.  I had a women's Bible study in the late morning so I showered and got myself ready.  It was about 11am in California and I sat down to get my stuff together.  The phone rang and it was my mom.  She said, "Can you believe this is happening?". I had no idea what she was talking about, but she told me to turn on my TV.  It was 9/11.  It had been almost 7 hours since the first plane.  My blissful ignorance spared me that 7 initial hours of pure horror.

Such a beautiful post and such true words, thank you!

Hi Karen S, I find smutty talk is creeping in everywhere. I sense that it makes people feel uncomfortable, young and old. Some are more vulnerable because of past experiences, or just more sensitive because they're mindful or whatever. Others, I think they don't give it a second thought because it's become so prevalent. Many of us feel we can't speak up about it, particularly at work or where there is an uneven power dynamic. For my study, I have to give a talk on safety in the workplace and I have decided to focus on the risk of "psychosocial harm", including that caused by inappropriate language and behaviour. I'm bracing myself for some kickback, but I hope that maybe people will privately give it some thought and decide to at least tone things down. As an older woman I feel I have the freedom to speak up in this way without worrying about whether people like me or not. I know that's a privileged position that not everyone is in. I think it's good if we try to maintain the standard we're comfortable with for ourselves at least.  Particularly for young people, they seem to feel that the only option for them to is to act tough, swear and go along with the innuendo. One of them commented on how I was always polite, marvelling at the fact that I have worked in the construction industry with this approach. It can be done!

I look at the "just in" news on our national multicultural broadcaster's website once a day. There are usually less than a dozen items. So much of what appears under the banner of news is really not.

I need a computer/phone for study, and to keep in touch with family and friends. I had been considering getting a "dumb phone" recently when my old one stopped recharging.  However for study and assessments, we need to be able access things by scanning a QR code, so I ended up with another smart phone.  The new phone has a feature that tracks your hours on various apps. As someone who considers themselves a low user of the phone, I was genuinely surprised and dismayed by how many hours I use. So my goal for October is to severely limit my usage - I'm not sure of the figure yet. I've made a start already, using the app and putting my phone out of reach for much if the day. People start to realise you're not going to respond straight away, and the number of texts and emails I receive has reduced already.  I will use my computer for study only - I considered going to the library and using theirs, but the time spent driving could be used for more worthwhile things. It's down to discipline for me :) I'm looking forward to it.

Hello. Just wanted to thank you for this information.  I am indeed as an American,  not aware of this history.  I am also doing some research on the 1930s. I eagerly await the October challenge.  I am committed to no more than two hours of tech daily. I am getting ready for this as best I can. It will be a challenge for me but I need it.