My birthday socks finished, and gift

 I have finally finished this pair of socks for me.  This 4ply sock wool is branded Happy Feet, no colour named, just a number, and I received it as a birthday gift last year from Sew Wot friend Mary.    As most of you know, I knit my socks flat, two at a time, and packed the finished socks in my knitting bag on our recent caravan trip planning to get side seam stitched up.  That never happened, and I finally completed this task once we returned back home.  It's about time I finished them.

Although it is now Spring, we are having awful weather and no doubt I will be wearing socks for a little bit longer.  I'm really looking forward to the weather co-operating more and being able to wear lighter Summer clothes again.  The last couple of days of our trip home were cold and bleak.  Just look at this weather out of the caravan window!

Brr, it's chilly out there

Low clouds followed us as we drove along the Desert Road, and the traffic was quite heavy as it was the last day of a long holiday weekend.  There is no actual sandy desert as such, and the scenery changes dramatically, from sub alpine trees, to miles of tussock covered land which is used for military training, and then changes again to rolling farmland at the southern end. The rain and low clouds followed us, obscuring my view of Mt Ruapehu.

It was time to stop and catch our breath at Waiouru.  Robin attended to the fuel requirements while I went over to the coffee cart.  I had an interesting chat with the owner and another customer inside when I mentioned we were on our way home to Levin.  Both of these ladies had lived there in the past. 

Time for a coffee

The weather had cleared and it was sunny again by the time we reached the last stop on our trip, Marton.  Gemma was keen to get outside and smell the flowers, but that didn't last long.  Before too long, down came the rain and wind again, and we spent the last night of our trip tucked up cozily inside the caravan.

We returned home safely the next day, unpacked, and put the first load of washing on.  My friend Dot called around with birthday gift, isn't it lovely!

Thanks, Dot