A few pictures from Lake of the Isles, with contests

Because of the complicated way I’m awarding prizes in the Contest of BABEL, I don’t have a list of winners to post yet. Next week, hopefully, if I communicate successfully with each winner. (Please make sure your spam filter allows email from stumblingoverchaos.com and that you left a valid email address in your comment.) Stop back on Monday for a your chance to win a signed copy of Minnesota author Michele Hauf’s forthcoming release, The Highwayman. (And many thanks to Michele for donating this prize!)

It’s time for Ali’s Summer Knitting Goals Contest! List your goals on your blog and leave a comment for Ali by midnight, June 21, for your chance to win some pretty nifty goodies. At the rate I’m knitting, my goal is just to finish the pair of Meilenweit Cotton Fun socks I’m knitting right now before fall. I’m past the heel (barely) on the first sock and I’ve been working on it for… five or six weeks.

Morbid Romantic’s giving away five copies of Billie Letts’ novel Made in the USA – leave a comment by 11:59 EDT, June 28, for your chance to win. (From the description, this may or may not be an audiobook. YMMV.)


I did manage to take pictures around Lake of the Isles last weekend before I messed up my foot. First up, make way for ducklings!

Lake of the Isles is the lowest I’ve ever seen it – you can easily see where the water line should be in the picture below. We had the driest May since 1934 (hmm… wasn’t that during the Dust Bowl?!).

Not quite as easy to tell the water’s low in this egret picture, but it isn’t usually that muddy/mucky near the shore. (You’ll see another picture of this egret next week.)


“Did someone mention… birds?!” -Mayhem

23 thoughts on “A few pictures from Lake of the Isles, with contests”

  1. We’ve been like that for the past several years. Now we’ve got so much rain we’re under a flood watch if too many people spit 🙁

    have a great weekend!!

  2. We’ve got all your rain. We’ve had the wettest June in years and years. Mayhem, you can’t catch a bird by sitting on your head.

  3. I’m worried to see how low our lake has gotten over in WI. If we’re lucky we’ll get some rain today. Cross fingers.

  4. I haven’t read Make Way for Ducklings in *ages*. I’d completely forgotten about that book.

    You learn something new every day – today’s lesson is what YMMV stands for.

  5. Great pics! I love how that egret walks.

    I was just out there yesterday, and I was thinking, if this keeps up, not only will it be awful for the lake and animals, but it is going to STINK! Can you believe all the seaweed? PS: I loved make way for ducklings! So sweet.

  6. Just might have to enter the summer knitting contest with a very similar goal. Our lake is very low and the banks are becoming a real problem every time it rains adding more silt to the lake; I’m hoping to plant some bank holding plants next weekend.

  7. Wow, we’ve had the wettest spring in decades! In April, for example, Chicago had twice its usual precip. Our ground is all waterlogged.

    The ducklings are so cute! The ones here are already much bigger — I miss the little tiny stage.

  8. Ducklings are so cute!
    My family in Wisconsin have had a lot of rain, so it’s odd you’ve been so dry.
    We have lots of egrets out here. I don’t see Mayhem coming off too well in a Mayhem-egret encounter.

  9. It’s been super rainy in the Boston area with rain every couple of days (and with rain starting last night and projecting to go through Monday). My little garden appreciates it, because I’m a little lazy about the watering.

    I am not letting myself do any knitting until I have finished the cross-stitch project I’m on. Then I need to finish the stuff for my MIL. I feel like I have a ton of projects waiting for my attention, so I should actually dig out which ones I want finished first.

  10. Goals, shoals. Listing them would identify the projects that will be doomed to incompletion forever.

    Where’s teh black sweater?

    Mom probably won’t let you play with the egrets either.

  11. Holy shit, that’s a sad looking lake. I think we have all your rain, though from what I hear, the near constant monsoons have only just now brought us back to normal rainfall levels.

    I loved walking around those lakes!

  12. You’re supposed to make your contests EASY on yourself! It has been raining a LOT here, as typical for many junes. And then it gets too dry later.

  13. What a sweet picture of the ducklings!

    And knitting goals… Well lately my crafting interests have multiplied, so I’m not sure how much actual knitting will occur.

  14. Chris, if you’d like some of the rain that’s been pelting the East Coast for the last month, I’d be happy to send you a bit. Unlike Minnesota, I believe I saw a news report that said D.C. received more than a third of its annual rainfall during May this year.

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