In the autumn of their lives: Exploring the geographies and rhythms of old[er] age masculinities

Funding information Leverhulme Trust [Grant number: RF‐ 2017‐210]. Using a novel longitudinal qualitative approach of revisiting older men across an elongated period, this paper addresses the lack of geographical attention given to older age masculinities specifically, and the limited exploration of the temporal aspects of masculinity more generally. Situated within debates around intersectional and relational approaches to masculinity and the critical geographies of ageing, the paper utilises insights from Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis to examine how older men (re)produce, organise, and improvise rhythms in using and experiencing places as they age. The paper shows how the notion of masculinities as relational is given fresh insight when considered through the lens of rhythms, offering a less dualistic framing of men than those centred on bodily capacity and that automatically present older men as subordinate, redundant, or inferior. The paper draws on in‐depth, repeat, qualitative interviews across four phases in an 18‐year period with 32 older men (over 65) in the UK. The analysis points to how changing rhythms as men age may be accommodated through, and subsumed within, wider rhythms of continued work, periods of busyness, and eurhythmia (accordance of rhythms) with those around them. Conversely, aspects of arrhythmia (dissonance or conflict of rhythms) that have previously been pointed to as marginalising may also offer older men a level of distinction – allowing, for example, a distancing from age‐graded spaces and prevalent discourses of older age as well as enabling socially dominant masculine positions compared to others at the local level. The paper also points to how masculinities are not only relational to other people and places but also to natural and non‐human rhythms and daily and seasonal contingencies as well as across time.

2 | BACKGROUND: GEOGRAPHIES OF OLDER AGE, MASCULINITIES, AND TEMPORALITY While the notion of hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 1995) which focuses on the normative, ideal type of masculinity that is seen as hierarchical to all other masculine and feminine subjectivitieshas remained a key touchstone within geographical research, it is the deployment in its original formulation that has arguably obfuscated the discussion of older age masculinities. Simply seeing older age masculinities as subordinate to youthful masculinitiesin relation to issues such as bodily capacity or economic powerhas served to render older men less visible and to ignore the diversity of men's practices, positionings, and performances in older age (Bartholomaeus & Tarrant, 2016). More usefully, within their reformulation of the ideas of hegemonic masculinity, Connell and colleagues see masculinity not as a "fixed entity embedded in the body or personal traits of individuals" but as a "configuration of practice" that is accomplished in particular social contexts (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005, p. 5). In this way, different cultural and temporal settings may see variations in the sets of gender relations and embodied practices that constitute masculinity. As West and Zimmerman (1987) concur, how we "do gender" is an embodied achievement through ongoing interaction. This interaction occurs with others' expressions of masculinity and femininity (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005), such that they may achieve relative hierarchical positions within a particular contextwhat Gorman-Murray and Hopkins (2016, p. 9) refer to as "strategic accomplishments." There is now a significant body of research that has considered the nature of such accomplishments in, and how they may vary across, a diverse range of spaces and places (for useful reviews see Gorman-Murray & Hopkins, 2016). In recognising the potentially reductive and singular theorisation offered by hegemonic masculinity (Pini, 2008), the term "socially dominant masculinities" is useful in placing emphasis on how particular masculinities may be celebrated, common, or powerful within particular contexts but offers recognition of how not all of these masculinities may be hegemonic (Filteau, 2014). Sherman (2011) offers a useful scalar exploration of this fluidity, noting how structural changes to the formerly dominant forest industry in a town in California meant that masculinities associated with production, the outdoors, strength, and hard work become less attainable as men face unemployment. They trace how these men developed alternative forms of nonhegemonic, but locally dominant, masculinities in the shifting context of what was seen as a legitimate masculine practice a theme similarly noted for younger men experiencing a decline of traditional social spaces in Estonia (Trell et al., 2014). Although these studies do not focus on older age, they are conceptually important, here, in highlighting that to recognise the situational quality of gender is also to recognise that masculinities are not static but fluid and open to change. Such fluidity within masculine ideals have been less prevalent within the discussion of rural, and specifically farming, masculinities, where the long-enduring facets of masculinity associated with strength, physicality, stoicism, technical competence, and aptitude within the natural environment are commonly reported (Pini & Mayes, 2019). The smaller body of research that has focused on youthful masculinities in rural contexts has similarly noted that although they may be performed in different ways, these more traditional aspects of masculinity remain prevalent (Trell et al., 2014). Indeed studies have noted the potential challenges of the adherence to this masculine archetype, with Bryant and Garnham (2015) highlighting the feelings of vulnerability and shame among those farmers who have not been able to maintain their farming business following financial crises. Little (2017) noted how the changing fortunes of rural industries might offer a threat to these more traditional gender identities, which in turn may encourage domestic violence as men seek to regain a certain type of masculine identity. Others have examined more overt changes to acceptable rural masculinities, noting how technological and administrative changes have led to the development of more "managerial" performances of masculinity (Pini, 2008), and how new gender(ed) roles have arisen as farms engage in diversification and non-production activities on their farms (Brandth & Haugen, 2010). In one of the few studies to explicitly consider generational differences in rural masculinities, Brandth (2016) has noted how changing societal normssuch as discourses around active parentingmight be taken up by younger generations of men and how narratives of rural manhood become reworked within these. While this work has highlighted the potential for more traditional rural masculinities to change, particularly among younger men who move away from rural areas (Trell et al., 2014), Little cautions that "'unreconstructed masculinity' struggles most in adapting to change and the traditional nature of rural masculinity is therefore a barrier to coping with alternative forms of gender identity" (2017, p. 482).
The geographies of age literaturein considering how older age is "culturally variable and underpinned by a range of social and economic processes, lived experiences and spatial practices" (Hopkins & Pain, 2007, p. 287)offers insight into how gendered identities may be (re)negotiated over the lifecourse. This work, straddling geography and gerontology, has considered how age and placeas well as social attributes such as class, race, and sexualityintersect, noting how relationships to place may change or strengthen in older age. Empirical work has focused in particular on the homespacean arena well known to geographers as being central to creating a sense of identity, meaning, and attachment (Blunt, 2005). This work has noted how the home may become increasingly important as people make (re)adjustments as they age (Winterton & Warburton, 2012), how such experiences may be gendered (Varley & Blasco, 2000), and how challenges to identities may occur when people relocate within older age (Wiles & Allen, 2010). In the smaller body of social geographical work that has considered the geographies of older age masculinities, there has been a reflection on how older men may be drawn into geographies of care (Bowlby, 2012) both for those with illness as well as in demonstrating expressions of care within grandparenting (Tarrant, 2014). This work observes not only how older men's sense of self may be reworked but also how gendered divisions of labour may persist within, and be reinforced by, these changing positions.
Although it has been noted that "intersectionality remains an uncommon and unclear approach in ageing" (Calasanti, 2019, p. 13), the application of intersectional approaches in studies of masculinities offers clear insight into how normative statuses such as white, heterosexual, and male may see a transformation when they intersect with each other and other social characteristics (Gahman, 2017). While intersectional approaches have their origins in black feminist thinking, which explored how black women faced being erased from discussions of exclusion that focus on a single axis of division (for a critical reflection on the history of intersectionality within geographical work see Hopkins, 2017), feminist scholars have extended intersectional analyses beyond the traditional focus on race, class, and gender, to recognise "that there are a range of vectors of relationality present within masculinities in different places and at different times" (Hopkins & Noble, 2009, p. 812). This feminist work has shown how gender, race, or class should not be seen as separate systems of oppression but as ones that mutually (re)construct one another and this interplay may often take contradictory and unexpected forms as masculinity is (de)stabilised and alters at the intersection with other categories and, in turn, that both such categories and intersections may be contextually variable (Christensen & Jensen, 2014). Such intersections offer possibilities for both inclusion and exclusion in different contexts. Abelson (2016), for example, undertook an intersectional analysis of transgender issues in rural USAnoting how transgender men drew on intersections of race and class to claim "sameness" among other rural men and to minimise their exclusion in a context strongly associated with heterosexuality. Pini and Conway (2017) looked at rural fathers in considering intersections of (dis)ability and masculinity (see also Gahman, 2017), noting how they reformulated motifs of masculinity such as breadwinning, sports, and the outdoors. Their analysis is conceptually instructive for the current paper's consideration of masculinity and older age in recognising that men can "negotiate or reconstitute their identities around their changing bodyspace" (Valentine, 1999, cited in Pini & Conway, 2017. Significant, too, is their recognition that, even among a small number of men, this (re)negotiation variessomething that concurs with Calasanti's caution, when seeking to apply intersectional thinking to older age, that "disadvantage does not double with age but alters in complex ways, which include not only structural constraints but also potential sources of strength or opportunities" (2019, p. 13).
The consideration of time and temporality has often been less explicit within the discussion of the co-constitution of gender and place. At one level, it has been observed that gender performances in particular placessuch as the streetmay vary between day and night (Anderson, 1999). More overtly to the discussion of masculinity, and the specific focus of this paper, Leap (2018) has observed how there may be seasonal variations, and patterns, to certain performances of masculinitysuch as seasonally contingent work and the seasonal nature of masculinised activities such as the harvest or hunting. These connections between gender and time have featured in the broader feminist critique of "gendered time," which contrasts the common flexibility of men's time associated with work/non-work and the more all-encompassing nature of women's time associated with care (Bowlby, 2012). While this broad framing is useful in highlighting relative privilege, conceptualising "men's time" arguably lacks the fine-grained focus to understand the multifarious and nuanced nature of men's actual experience(s). In seeking to frame older age masculinities, the paper draws on insights from Lefebvre's (2004) rhythmanalysis. As the central tenet of rhythmanalysis suggests that "everywhere where there is interaction between a place, a time and an expenditure of energy, there is rhythm" (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 15), it provides a potentially useful framing for the consideration of relational older age masculinities. In recognising that everyday life is an ensemble of different temporalities, Lefebvre refers to the bouquet of different rhythms which may accord (eurhythmia) or "break apart, alter and bypass synchronisation" (arrhythmia) (2004, p. 67). Places, in this sense, are "polyrhythmic ensembles" (Crang, 2001, p. 190) as everyday life is eurhythmically ordered through the synchronisation of practices such as work, leisure, sleeping, and consumption. Lefebvre places emphasis on the centrality of work in coordinating these rhythmswith other rhythms such as sleep and meals relational, and even subordinate, to the rhythms of work. Lefebvre uses the term dressagewhich is similar to Foucault's notion of the docile bodyto consider the strategies and techniques employed to ensure bodies conform to dominant rhythms. As Edensor (2014) points out, such entrainment to rhythms might include disciplinary military training or the broader societal rhythms of the standardised (or enforced) timings of work.
Two aspects of rhythmanalysis are conceptually important for the consideration of rhythms of older age masculinities. First, dressage brings not merely conformity but also the possibilities of resistance, improvisation, and the opportunity to remake identitieswhat Edensor (2010, p. 16) calls "resistant rhythms." A similar argument is made by Vergunst (2010) who, in discussing walking, notes that rhythms may be improvised in relation to changing terrain and conditions. Second, recognition that rhythms rely on materiality and the non-human, being shaped, for example, by weather and diurnal and natural rhythms (Jones, 2010). Although Lefebvre's original analysis was quite singular in its demographic focusthe experiences of men in post-war Francehe noted that temporal rhythms and entrainment may vary for different social categories. As Edensor notes, normative rhythms are "only ever partial and susceptible to disordering by counter rhythms and arrhythmia" (2010, p. 2). Hall (2010), for example, considers how the rhythms of the homeless are at odds with those working conventional hours in the city, while Schwanen et al. (2012b) have shown how participation in the night-time economy of a Dutch city differs across axes of gender, race, and ethnicitywith women's participation greater during busy periods while men's was less affected by the collective presence and rhythms of others.
Where the discussion of rhythms has focused on older people, it has been observed that the tempo of everyday life may slow and that there may be a change in the way that activities are sequenced and timed (Lee, 2013;Schwanen & Kwan, 2012). New rhythms may be brought forward with older age, such a change in bio-social rhythms associated with ill-health, or new routines brought about by the reliance on medication and medicating times (Phoenix & Bell, 2019). Older age may also result in a withdrawal from public life, involve spending greater amount of time indoors, and may lead to a feeling of being "left behind" (Lager et al., 2016). Neoliberally informed discourses of ageing tend to devalue the non-working rhythms of older people, reduce their level of social capital, and may leave them feeling "out of sync" with wider society (Lager et al., 2016). Although it is often the case that older people may come to rely on the rhythms of othersin providing care or access to transportit has also been suggested that individuals' rhythms may be reworked or punctuated in order to make post-(re)productive time more productive (Bildtgård & Öberg, 2015). Although not explicitly focusing on older age, Reid-Musson notes how a consideration of rhythms can offer an insight into the "processual and repetitive patterns and routines within which social categories of difference are both constituted and contested" (2017, p. 892). Bringing this insight together with the intersectional discussion of masculinities and age(ing) offers a new and useful conceptual framing through which to consider counter-rhythms as people negotiate spatio-temporal constraints placed around them. Recognising their fluid and relational nature allows an exploration of how masculinities may change over time, while seeing these as accomplishmentsachieved in specific contextsallows a focus on how broader discourses of both ageing and masculinity intersect and are (re)worked at the local level in socially (non)dominant ways. Synthesising this with insights from rhythmanalysis enables an exploration of how rhythms both constitute and reinforce masculinities, and how such rhythms may be (re)worked in older age.

| THE RESEARCH
This paper draws on a qualitative research project that has been ongoing since 2001. The initial research investigated farming practices and wider farming cultures and had a specific focus on gender and familial relations. Focused on the Peak District (UK), 1 the initial research involved 62 farmsmainly farming families 2which were purposively chosen (Mason, 1996) to represent different types of upland farms in this region, and involved a combination of in-depth qualitative interviews, most commonly walking interviews, and participant observation. Initial interviews (2001)(2002)(2003) included as many members of each of the farms as possible and involved multiple interviews (both joint and individual) on all of the farms. Those initial farm members were re-interviewed again in three subsequent phases in 2006-2007, 2011-2012, and 2018-2019, returning both to specific farms and, where possible, also interviewing members from the original interviews who had moved away from the farm. The material drawn on in this paper comes from interviews with 32 farming men who were aged over 65 at the point of the final phase and who had been involved in the previous phases of the research.
The aim of this qualitative longitudinal approach was not only to consider changes to the occupation but also to trace individual biographies over time. As such, the approach was designed to move beyond the limitation of much current research, on both ageing and masculinity, which commonly takes a one-off, snapshot approach to considering experiences at one specific point in time. While snapshot approaches have proved fruitful in gauging the varying experiences between different groups at the same point in time, and biographical interviews allow individuals to recollect, and reflect on, differences to their past selves (Skinner et al., 2015), visiting at different time points allowed the more everyday and seemingly unremarkable practiceswhich may nonetheless be crucial to framing and forming gendered subjectivitiesto be explored. Taking the view that people can talk about their everyday practices (Hitchings, 2012), in-depth interviews were the central pillar of data collection. These were emplaced interviews (Riley, 2010) in that they were undertaken on farms (or people's homes where they had moved off farms). This involved spending time with, and revisiting, (multiple) respondentsboth as a method of observing their everyday activities and also considering the multiple lives that intersect in these places. Wherever possible, walking interviews were conducted as a way of exploring spaces and giving more deeply contextualised narratives (Riley, 2010). All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was undertaken cross-sectionally for each individual at each phase, following Braun and Clark's (2006) six-stage model, and then longitudinally in order to consider how the emergent themes persisted (or needed to be revisited) across phases and to examine change for individuals across the period.
The final sample consisted of 32 men who ranged from 65 to 93 years old. Although these respondents can be classed as "older men," their work status was difficult to classify in the majority of cases. Those 11 men who had moved off their farms could be defined as retired, but five of these reported still helping on their successors' farms. Of the 21 other men, all recorded still having an involvement in the farm, with 17 living in the same house throughout and four living in a different house on the same farm. In the discussion that follows, respondents are given pseudonyms and their ages are given in ranges (rather than a specific age) in order to protect their anonymity, and extracts are accompanied with the phase (P1-P4) from which they were collected. 3

| RHYTHMS OF OLDER AGE
Older age is commonly associated with the cessation (or reduction) of work and a potential "slowing down," and may require individuals to remake time-space "by seeking new everyday rhythms and places" (Lager et al., 2016(Lager et al., , p. 1573)which might include maintaining routines and "keeping busy" (Katz, 2000). While reference to slowing rhythms, and what might be called "rhythms of rest," were notedboth explicitly in interviews and more implicitly by comparing extracts and observations across the research phaseswhat was significant was how such rhythms were placed. The following quotes come from two interviews, at different points in time, with Johnwho remained on his farmand one interview from Steven, who had moved to a new home following his retirement in his late 60s: John's extract illustrates the subtle changes to rhythms while remaining in a routine broadly similar to his earlier life, while Steven talks of the (re)development of his routine in a new place. Common to both is the way that rest was incorporated into both wider rhythms of busyness and anchored to specific places associated with work. It has been commonly noted that men may hold a particular relationship with the homespaceoften being seen as antithetic to their masculine status as producer or breadwinner (Brandth, 2016) and for these, and the majority of respondents, how their rhythms were tied to the homespace was significant. For John, his restdiscursively framed as "catching [his] breath," but which his wife's interjection suggests was not uncommonwas enfolded within the long-established rhythms of his daily work. In this way, rest and stillness were not discrete or easily identifiable events or rhythms but were wrapped into the temporary stops of mealtimes. So too, the kitchen was a domestic space of temporary pausing, and this pattern of being in the house just for meals was a continuation of a long-held pattern of daily activity, as evidenced in John's phase 1 interview extract. The importance of the micro-space of the home to these rhythms was also seen in the extract from Stevenfor whom the more overtly coded working space of the farm was not available to fold periods of rest into. Here, Steven utilised non-domestic spaces of the garage, garden, and shed to allow the masculine status of "still ticking" to be demonstrated by being active and out of the house (see Ormsby et al. (2010) on the importance of sheds in older age). This status was buttressed by the daily rhythm of wearing his boiler suitacting as masculine and "age-defying dress" (Twigg, 2007) and the timing of this wearing serving to signify that he was busy and "working." While the presence of the chair was a recognition of the potential need for rest and changing physical capabilitiesdetracting from the oft-presented hegemonic masculinity of the able-bodied man without weakness -Steven's position was drawn in relation to the more lowly masculine position of being "on the sofa." Such a position was not only relegated as a result of being inactive but also in being in the more RILEY | 425 feminised space of the home (Varley & Blasco, 2000) and, more specifically, being in this space at a time usually associated with work.
In addition to the moments of rest within the day, the interviews also highlighted how diurnal rhythms become important to the display of masculinity. The following extracts come from Bernard, who remained working on his family farm, and Bob, who had relocated: I'm still up first in the morning […] and I'll go around and check what's in bulling at night and that the silage is thrown up to the barrier. 4 (Bernard, (c), P4) I'll be out with the dog first thing in the morning, he's raring to go, we're out whatever the weather, before most people are awake around here […] I'll do the washing up after supper … [addressing his wife] you're interested in the soaps aren't you? But I can't sit and watch that load of tripe … waste of time … so I'll do the washing up. (Bob, (b), P4) Seen, here, is the spatiotemporal practice of what might be called "bookending" the daystarting early and finishing latewhich enabled these men both to foreground their continued physical capabilities and to wrap any temporary periods of slowing or rest, within the day, into the broader rhythmic patterns of having undertaken a "long day." In both cases, these long days served as "rhythms of resistance" (after Edensor, 2010) against discourses of ageing and declining masculine status. For Bernard, his morning and night-time tasks, while both light in nature, were central to the successful operation of the family farm. His bookending offered a sense of continuity from the daily patterns of his earlier lifenoted as important to people as they move into older age (Katz, 2000) and a continued feeling of bodily capability and purpose. Both Bernard and Bob's quotes highlight, too, the importance of non-human rhythms to this bookending, with the needs of cattle and dogs, respectively, acting as a pace-maker and intersecting with their own diurnal rhythms. Alongside this, a subtle display of masculinity was evident through the stoicism within which adverse weather conditions did not serve to disrupt these daily rhythms. At the other end of the day, Bob shows how the homespace might become reimagined within older age. It has been argued within gerontological research that people may see a "miniaturisation" of their environment as they age (Rowles & Watkins, 2003) relating particularly to the increased time spent in the home and the relatively short distances venturedand Bob illustrated how this process may be rhythmic as well as spatial. Although domestic work is something that has been seen as the antithesis of masculinity (Varley & Blasco, 2000) and an area which Bob has not engaged with prior to retirementit illustrates how age and masculinity intersect. For Bob, the kitchen has become reworked as space of work and activity within his miniaturisation of the homespace, and washing up thus prioritised as preferable to his wife's practice of watching soaps that was seen as a "waste of time." While the previous examples show that particular rhythms, and the placing of these rhythms, offered a framing device for the men to resist overt discourses of ageing and associated decline of masculine status, there were numerous examples, particularly where men continued their involvement on farms, where routine tasks started to challenge their physical capabilities. Although there was common acknowledgement of "not being as quick as I once was" (Albert, (b)) and having "had to slow down at my age" (Rodger, (b)), various spatiotemporal practices were drawn on in accommodating this slowing and in preserving their masculine identities. The two following extracts, from two men at different time points, illustrate their approaches to accommodating these changes: I'm pretty fit … I plough through a lot of work in a day. I've probably done as much before breakfast as many folk do in a whole day. (Rex, P1) I'm not as fast as I once was, but it's getting the job done that counts. Although there was a clear change in bodily rhythms noted between the two periods, the masculine traits of stoicism and endurance became foregrounded in the later extracts. Here, speed and tempo become relegated below the more highly prized display of endurance and perseverance. Stjernborg et al. (2014) have noted how technologies may open up possibilities for mobilities in older age and Matt's extract extends this in revealing how it might be used to maintain tempo and act as a substitute in order to mask physical limitations. Alongside this role of masking slowing bodily rhythms, Matt's extract also shows how the deployment of technology allows a (re)activation of the traits of competence and technical skill, which simultaneously allows a dominant positioning in relation to other, younger men through the competitive reference of being able to give "anyone a run for their money."

| ARRHYTHMIA AND OLDER AGE
Hinted at within the last section of the paper is how the older men connect themselves and their rhythms to others. As Lefebvre has argued: "we know that a rhythm is slow or lively in relation to other rhythms" (2004, p. 10), and the rhythms of others proved central to these older men and their gendered subjectivities. Two groups were commonly referred tofellow farm members and those others living in close proximity. As Lefebvre (2004) argues, certain rhythms are more valorised than othersparticularly those associated with youth and masculinitywhile the broader literature on masculinities points to the young, muscular, and fit body as the archetypal hegemonic masculinity (Gahman, 2017;Pini & Mayes, 2019). The older men commonly considered their own rhythms in relation to their sons and grandsons: Look at him [son] running around like a headless chicken … he'll learn to slow down eventually. (Rob, (a), P4) I don't need to rush the job, I know how to do it … I say to my son, stop and think a minute and you can save yourself an hour. He doesn't often listen, but I suppose I never did at his age. (George, (b), P3) Through comparison to these young men, the older men identified their rhythms as slower, but rather than automatically conceding a less dominant position at the farm level, they were able to elevate their own position through their accumulated experience and associated skill. Rather than prioritising the rhythm of his son as preferential, George points to the unnecessary expenditure of energy and wasting time, in comparison to his own rhythm of "using your head a bit to save your body" (George, P3). Moreover, the reference of George to "I never did at his age" gives recognition to how rhythms may change over the lifecourse and that the relational consideration of masculinities is not only a present-centred comparison but also to past rhythms and practicesa theme returned to later in the paper.
The rhythms of others were also evident through comparison with those outside the farm. The extracts below come from Norman and from two interviews with Geoff, straddling his time on and off the farm: You see them driving past, not long after 5pm and then they are straight off to the gym … sat at a desk all day not doing any proper work and they're ready to burn off some energy. (Norman, (a), P3) We go sequence dancing on a Saturday night […] that's our social life really, get us through the gate. (Geoff, P2) We still drive over and go to the same dance on a Saturday […] keeps us fit […] my wife goes to the afternoon dances around here … that's not for me … I see the bloke next door waddling off in the day, nothing better to do … I'll help set up, but I don't go to the dance. (Geoff, (d), P4) Echoing the earlier reference of Bob to walking his dog while his neighbours were still in bed, Norman highlighted the level of arrhythmia between himself and non-farming neighbours. Longer working days, tied to diurnal and natural rhythms, were contrasted to the shorter days of these others. This is taken further by framing office work as not "proper work" and the lack of energy expenditure attached to the less masculine practice of going to the gym, as opposed to the more constant rhythms of his own manual labour which "keep me naturally fit" (Norman, P3). While it has been suggested that older people may feel isolated as a result of being "out of sync" with the working patterns of those around them (Lager et al., 2016), the observations here highlight how arrhythmia was also a way to maintain a distinction between individuals and those living close by and a sense of hierarchy in working longer hours or, in the case of Bob, showing his ability to be up early while those around him are sleeping.

| 427
Geoff's extracts note the intersection of rhythms of work and leisure. In the first phase interview, he highlights the eurhythmia with others, off-farm, in this leisure activity and hints at its role in "getting us through the gate"punctuating the otherwise dominant rhythms of work. As he moved off-farm and into retirement, this dance maintains a sense of social connectedness (cf. Rowles & Watkins, 2003) and a regular marker in the rhythm of his week. He is reluctant, however, to change the timing and placing of this dancewith the dances closer to his new home being in the day. His desire, here, is not for social isolation from those attending the dance but to avoid what he considers the less masculine practice of dancing during the day. Such an activity arguably runs counter to his long-practised diurnal rhythms of work and leisure to which he has become entrained. This practicepositioned as "not for me" by Geoffwas articulated through reference to the less socially dominant position of his neighbour, who was presented as less physically able (waddling) and having "nothing better to do," and reinforced by the arrhythmic, resistant, position of helping (or working) rather than being seen to be dancing during the daytime.

| SEASONS OUT OF TIME
In addition to the daily and diurnal rhythms of the people interviewed, there were also seasonal contingencies to how they did gender. The natural world has been pointed to in rural masculinity researchnoting how the "control" of land and nature is discursively placed as a masculine trait (Brandth, 2006;Saugeres, 2002) but seasonal rhythms are arguably an important part of the display and performance of masculinity (see also Leap, 2018) and also older age masculinities in the case of the men considered here. The following extract, from Richard, considers his seasonal calendar and offers a useful entrée and reference point for the discussion of these longer-run rhythms: Well we're in the spring, so lambing and calving have always been the big jobs around now, it's all hands on deck. Then you're looking to squeeze in getting some fertilizer on […] when we've got the lambs out, there is a tonne of spring work to do … building up the walls, cleaning the sheds … dawn until dusk getting it done […] then in early May we're getting the cows out and that takes the pressure off a bit […] depending if it has been a warm spring, we can be thrashing into silage-making, earlier if the weather is rightthat's when you really show your worth, handling the machinery and keeping it all rolling […] making sure we get straw in 5 , then it's getting as much done as you can with the light nights […] first part of autumn is the lamb sales […] then turning out the tups, bonfire night for April Fool's day 6 […] then you're into back end again … it's 365 days a year. (Richard, (c), P4) The seasonal patterns described were similar to those for many farmers in this region and beyond, and serve to illustrate not only the continual nature of hard work underpinning their masculinity but also the collective nature of this engagement and how the past and present are connected together within these familiar rhythms. The reference to multiple tasks, working 365 days a year, and from "dawn until dusk," all play to the common masculine traits of endurance and perseverance. The summer, in particular, represented the time men most overtly demonstrated their "real worth," through long work days and also the skilled operation and maintenance of machineryan area appropriated by men and from which women are often excluded (Saugeres, 2002). Significant, too, is not just the persistence of work through the year but also its varying rhythms and placings, depending on rhythms such as weather. While the year presents broadly recurring patterns of work, their placing and tempo are cut across by the less predictable everyday rhythms of the weathersuch as the need to "go, go, go" (Les, (c), P3) when the fine weather for harvesting is available. Such natural and seasonal rhythms were also significant for those men who had moved away from farms: For Ian, while the volume of work was not as intense as in his previous farming work, the seasons represented a pacemaker for the rhythms in creating a "full-time job." Moreover, his activities, albeit on a smaller scale, demonstrate a masculine trait seen across the samplethe ability to react to and change rhythms quickly in light of changes to natural rhythms such as the weather. Again, there is a sense of arrhythmia hereas Ian's actions of shovelling snow after dark are decoupled from those rhythms of neighbours, which allows him to draw a dominant masculine status relationally to them and to maintain the sense of individual stoicism and hard work commonly associated with rural masculinities. For Andrew who retired to a bungalow on the family farm after suffering a mild stroke between phase 2 and 4 interviews -"somatic intrusions" (Edensor, 2014, p. 167) brought a rapid change to his farming rhythms. Still, however, non-human and seasonal rhythms remained important. The layout of his house was similar to what Rowles and Watkins (2003) have referred to as a "surveillance zone" and was structured in order to maintain this connection to the natural world. Although he was not able to lay claim to the physical attributes commonly associated with masculinity, Andrew retained the skill of understanding and predicting rhythms of weather despite his changed physical capabilitieswith his son commenting in a parallel interview that "he is rarely wrong." Within the sample, there was a clear generational split, with older farmers laying emphasis on weather lore and more localised signs for weather prediction, while younger generations relied on more scientific, regional, weather forecasts. For Andrew, these skills allowed a level of social dominance within this specific contextwith his predictions being used to direct the activities of both his wife and his son.
Andrew's specific case is informative for the wider observation of how ageing masculinities are situated within "bundles, bouquets, [or] garlands of rhythms" (Lefebvre, 2004, p. 20) and that such bouquets may allow the incorporation of "moments of improvisation" (Wee et al., 2019, p. 2). Seen too in Richard's broader narrative of the farming calendarwith repeated reference to "we" and "having all hands on deck" -Andrew's extract shows how individual rhythms of older men may be woven into the rhythms of those around them. Such synchronicity was important to how older age might be accommodated: I'm on the main chopping machine now. Since dad has his hip replaced it's harder for him to work the clutch. Oliver highlights how multiple rhythms become bundled together. The somatic intrusion for his father (phase 2) meant a swap in individual tasks (operating the chopper) and a further change, to his son, evident in the most recent interview. The overarching rhythm of silage-making, howeveras a collection of individual rhythmsremains unchanged. This synchronisation of rhythms, and the interchangeability of tasks, allows the masculine identities of older men to remain largely untroubled. In the same way as Bob's and Bernard's process of bookending mentioned earlier, Oliver's individual rhythms become indistinguishable from the broader rhythms of their farm and otherssuch that the individual changes of pace become less visible. For our broader understanding of masculinities, such examples highlight the process that might be termed "de-individualising," whereby masculine status is maintained through this intricate synchronisation, or bundling, of rhythms. Place was central to this process because being physically proximate to the rhythms of others allowed any subtle changes in roles over time to be largely unnoticed or at least less conspicuous. In addition to masking any changes to their contribution brought about by older age, it allowed a sense of conjoined masculinity. That is, older men could place the skills and masculine status of their sons as co-dependent on their own contributionin this case, the demonstration of his son's technical skills in operating the silage chopper were inextricably linked to Oliver's own skills and timing in mowing the land in preparation for him to do this. This process of de-individualising was also seen to take place over time. Here, the older men drew on a compressed temporal framework of past, present, and future: We've farmed it for over 100 years and there's another two generations following me now, so we should be here for another hundred years. (Isaac, (b), P4) I've carried on building miles and miles of stone walls over this place … chuck em out, build em up, chuck em out, build em up, year after year (Roland, P1) [in a later interview] they'll still be keeping stock in in the next century. (Roland, (b), P4) I've stood aside … I've done my share. We've set them up well […] we're still winning awards for having the best cattle around here […] I've taken the time to teach [my sons] every skill possible […] it's easier now, they'll not have to do the hard labour that I did, or the real hard hand-graft that my father did. (Elliot, (a), P4) Isaac's extract is illustrative of the temporal approach taken by many farmers interviewedwhere past and future generations are often viewed, and talked of, collectively. Such conjoining of individual rhythms offered the potential for older men in these contexts to maintain a sense of masculine identity through sharing credit for current successes through their past rhythms and contributions. Roland (P1), for example, illustrates the cumulative nature of the seasonal rhythm of wall-buildingin itself a demonstration of skill and strengthand later reflects on how it stands as a material reminder of these skills and rhythms and is still central to the farm's operation today. Elliot, too, uses past contributions (having "done my share") as justification for his current slower rhythms (associated with ill-health) and employs the same process of de-individualising, but focuses on the skills of his sonseeing them, through this framing, as an extension of his own skills and masculine status. His example, too, illustrates two further performances of masculinity more specific to older age in this context. First is the approach of "stepping aside"usually in the form of farm succession to their children but also, more subtly, giving greater levels of control to these while remaining working alongside themwhich is the noble, masculine, action for these men in passing opportunity to the next generation. Second, and noted across the sample over the time periods, was how rhythms of work changed such that more processes have become mechanised and labour-saving, and that rhythms of manual labour have, accordingly, become less arduous over time. This is something that allows older men to relate to the presentwith their successors both benefiting from their own past work but also simultaneously positioning these successors as having not had to endure the hard masculine rhythms that they did themselves and, as such, giving themselves a continued sense of dominant masculine status based on this unchangeable past.

| CONCLUSIONS
In moving beyond static and present-centred approaches, this paper has advanced understandings of, and debates around, the geographies of masculinities. While much has been written about the spatialities of masculinities, the unique conceptual and methodological framing developed here has allowed the more temporal contingencies of masculinity to be articulated. Although the empirical focus of the paper has been around a particular social group and geographical context, the methodological and conceptual insights are more wide-reaching and contribute new understandings of masculinity, ageing, and rhythms of everyday life. The paper exhorts the practice and value of a longitudinal ethnographical approach and offers a blueprint for future research. While such approaches necessarily require researchers' longer-term investment, they simultaneously offer a commitment to participants and move the research relationship beyond one of researcher "parachuting in" (and out) of participants' lives. More practically, the approach affords a new lens to understand how identities may be intricately (re)worked over time (and as people age) and through which individuals might articulate not only geographical contingencies but also temporal ones as they reflect on the expressions of their former selves. More so than approaches relying on participants' recollections, the practice of following individuals over time accommodates and highlights many seemingly unremarkable everyday activities that constitute how men do gender, not just how they talk of it.
The paper has seen that the notion of masculinities as relational (cf. Berg & Longhurst, 2003) is given fresh insight when considered through the lens of rhythms. This focus on rhythms offers a less dualistic framing of men than those centred on bodily capacity and that, geographers have shown (Bartholomaeus & Tarrant, 2016), automatically present older men as subordinate, redundant, or inferior. The findings here suggest that micro-scale slowingsuch as the need for rest or through reduced physical capabilitiesmay be subsumed within wider rhythms of continued work (and associated traits of stoicism and endurance) and periods of busyness. Following the same men over time allows an understanding of the gradual and subtle nature of this enfolding of rhythms. Place is central to this process, and it has been seen that remaining "in place" allows older men to maintain eurhythmia with those around them, such that their individual contribution remains vital to, but difficult to disentangle from, the wider polyrhythmic ensemble of this placeand avoids them being readily positioned as unproductive or out of sync. Although farming offers a particular privilege in enabling this continued engagement, this conceptual observation may hold wider resonance in light of the abolition of enforced retirement in many countries and the increasing number of people working in to what has historically been referred to as "older age." Where moving place is necessary, the persistence of familiar rhythms and the subtle, performative, adaptation of such rhythms are important to maintaining masculine identities in older age. Here, the paper contributes to understandings of the mutually constitutive relationships between older people and placedebated within the discussion of geographies of older age (Skinner et al., 2015) in noting that the spaces of home may be reconsidered in (re)developing these rhythms as the masculine (productive) and feminine (reproductive) coding of indoor-outdoor spaces becomes reworked within the microspaces of the home. While the findings here concur with earlier observations that older age may involve men spending more time in the homespace (Rowles & Watkins, 2003), it extends them in recognising that particular rhythmssuch as zoning and timing activities in the homeallow a familiar sense of masculinity to be continued in the micro-space of the home.
While common reference is made to how masculinities are developed relationally to places and other people (Gorman-Murray & Hopkins, 2016), this paper shows the need to also recognise how they are relational to the non-human. Natural and non-human rhythms and daily and seasonal contingencies may act as a pacemaker and working with them allows displays of masculinity ranging from long periods of busyness, facing adverse weather, and demonstrating seasonally specific skills. While repetition and continuity have been noted as important to older age (Skinner et al., 2015), it has been seen here that arrhythmia and variations of rhythms may too be important to older age masculinities. Just as differing rhythms to those in close proximity may lead to a sense of discord and isolation (Lager et al., 2016), so too they may offer a level of distinctionallowing, for example, a distancing from age-graded spaces and prevalent discourses of older age as well as enabling socially dominant masculine positions compared to other older men at the local level. Alongside this, the ability to react to, and to work flexibly with, unpredictable rhythmssuch as changing weather patternscan be a prized masculine practice carried into older age. Even as rhythms such as mobility may slow in older age, men may take masculine status from working with this unpredictability and showing their ability to react to it.
The paper shows that masculine status is not only relational to other masculinities and masculine performances across space but also across time. This relates not only to individuals' assessment against their former masculine selves but also through reactivating past rhythms and contributions in the present. Previous research has noted how artefacts such as photographs and other mementos may offer connections to previous selves, and that accumulated wealth may undergird masculine power and status in older age (Calasanti, 2019;Pini & Mayes, 2019), and the findings presented here extend this in noting that the material outcomes of past rhythms and achievements may allow a connection to the present, while the current practising of skills that they have taught other, younger people may allow a more conjoined sense of masculine status. Taken together, these observations also highlight the relevance for future work of recognising that individual masculinities are multiple and diverse and how these may, often, be reworked gradually over time. While watershed events such as illness or enforced retirement may rapidly change men's rhythms, the approach taken here highlights how, more often, masculinities intersect with age in more gradual and cumulative ways over time. Such rhythmic patterns allow elements of pre-existing masculinities to be foregrounded, as others slowly recede, and patterns of both eurhythmia and arrhythmiaincluding others, technologies, and natural rhythmsenable both new and reformulated senses of self and masculinity to emerge.