Astronomy and RASC

Another of Edward's hobbies was astronomy and we have several telescopes. The 4 inch reflecting telescope we bought when we were first married and I will always remember being out in the middle of the night watching the occulation of the Plaiedes. It was a cold night but the excitement of seeing that for Edward remains in my mind. He had suggested that we donate that telescope to the RASC in case they can hand it on to another young person who does not have a telescope. That is a project that we are starting to think about. Edward was a member of the RASC for all the years that we lived in London and continued when we first moved here. He let his membership lapse for a while but became a member again a few years ago so we attended a number of the meetings. 

Edward was also interested in bird watching (which I shared) and we belonged to the Ottawa Field Naturalist Club since we arrived here way back in 1975. I will probably let that membership go as well since I no longer attend meetings. We used to take our oldest daughter on the bird watching events until we discovered she had asthma and couldn't be out in the woods too much in the summer time. 

The hobbies my husband had were numerous and he enjoyed all of them. The big project is how to dismantle that incredible network of interests and donate any of the items that could be used by another which was always his wish. Some items we will keep especially the new refracting telescope that has proven to be a most interesting item although I can barely lift it! We have had that out a number of times through this year of COVID-19.  The spotters and binoculars still get a lot of use so we will also keep all of that. As we work our way through the closets where everything was stored we can figure that out. 

His fishing poles came to light the other day (and there are three of them) and I must check and see if my daughter wants those. I think he had one fishing pole when we got married so that was one hobby that did date back to before marriage. We used to fish up on Manitoulin Island in the summer before children (I mostly watched to be honest although I did catch the occasional fish). He did love to go fishing.

I always describe our life as before children, children and empty-nesters. There were distinct time periods as we were married eight years before our first child and then to the time that our youngest moved out and married there was 35 years and we were empty nesters for 13 years except our children came back to visit and spend periods of time at various times. But we were mostly empty nesters throughout the winter months.