Wet.

Lots of heavy rain today with a little sunshine. The strong winds brought out a couple of kite surfers closely followed by a small group of surfers who had a great time catching the waves.

Today's photos were taken with both cameras but when it came to getting the photos from the small camera I ran into some problems. Option one was to use the lead but the battery light was flashing low and the photos wouldn't transfer. I do have more of the same size rechargeable batteries but they're currently in the battery operated Christmas lights in the sitting room. Option two was to read directly from the card. It's a large card but I do have a multiport reader that it fitted into. However my PC then decided it couldn't open the files so I gave up. I've had a look at the cost of a new camera which as I prefer to stick to Nikon is a lot. But when I looked at the specs my camera has 24x optical zoom while the equivalent model  now has 40x optical zoom or the next one up has 60x optical zoom. Those are very tempting.

My day has been spent doing housework and cooking, neither of which I find very satisfying. In fact with my back aching just as much as after walking or gardening I'm already fed up with cooking. Neither of my cooking jobs was very complicated, I just don't think I have the right temperament to enjoy being in the kitchen. Well, I cooked a large batch of carrot and swede mash, some to have with our Christmas dinner and the rest for the freezer. It's at this time of the year that the supermarkets vie for shoppers by offering very cheap vegetables. On the farming programme this morning they were talking about how 19p for 2.5 kg bags of new or roasting potatoes was less than it costs to produce them. I have taken advantage of the offers and bought cheap potatoes, carrots and parsnips. I'm not sure that swedes are that economical as they take forever to cook. Eventually they were soft enough to mash with butter, pepper a little nutmeg and cream, so tasty. My other cooking job didn't even involve cooking, it was all chopping and slicing. This was vinegretas, mixed bean and beetroot salad that is a staple of the traditional Christmas Eve meal. Added to the basic ingredients went fine chopped red onion and dill gherkins all mixed with a vinaigrette dressing. Before serving I'll add sliced spring onions. If I was making it for guests I'd also add celery, apple and pickled herring. I had only planned to make enough for tomorrow night and some extra for Boxing Day but my Lithuanian genes kicked in (serving plenty of good food is a must) and by the time I'd chopped up the whole bag of boiled beetroot and added an extra tin of kidney beans I'd made enough to feed at least eight. I asked on a Lithuanian recipe page to see if I could freeze some but the consensus is not. So I had a portion tonight with mozzarella for my dinner and we'll eat as much of it as we can. Since it hasn't got the fish in it I wonder if I can put it in a soup?