Weekend Review: Blood Donation, Snow, and Mandarin

This week went by quickly ...perhaps due to its time-lapse progression through all four seasons: 26-degree summer on Saturday, rainy autumn on Sunday, wintery snow on Monday, and crisp sunny spring today. This brings me to the first thing I'm grateful for this week:

trending in the right direction

1. the return of summer weather -- forecasted this weekend!

   

   good riddance to this
2. water drop beauty -- On a chilly and grey walk home I passed beneath this trellis-type shelter (snowshed?) to find its wooden slats suspending hundreds of little water drops. From a certain angle it looked like a canopy of diamonds.

   

   caught my eye

   

   the picture doesn't do it justice

3. Cosmos -- This week I watched the first three episodes of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, a science documentary series presented by Neil deGrasse Tyson. The episodes weave together a wonderfully captivating story about life and the universe.

   

   tardigrade (waterbear), one of my favourite creatures! -- featured on Cosmos

4. donating blood -- I walk past the Canadian Blood Services donation clinic everyday and decided that it was time that I made an appointment. I donated whole blood on Saturday morning. Despite the early hour, the waiting area was filling up with donors, making me realize how lucky we are to have such a well-supported blood product donation program.

   

   I choose these flax cranberry cookies every time!

5. learning Mandarin -- I was happy to discover that the university offers free volunteer-taught language courses on Saturday mornings, just two blocks down from where I live. I'm looking forward to starting in the beginners' Mandarin class at the end of the month. I spent Sunday afternoon studying the first chapter of Integrated Chinese. It's such a joy to learn something so different from what I'm used to studying.

   

   Can you believe I learned this on Sunday? I can't either.

6. moonset -- The days are slowly getting shorter, with the sun rising at 7 am now. That means walks to work feature a setting moon in the dawn's orange glow.
7. close call with a wasp -- There are poplar trees planted outside the hospital that are just crawling with wasps (I think the trees must secrete a desirable sap). Yesterday one of the little guys flew right into the top of my jacket. I'm just thankful I noticed and escorted it out!