MASS OBSERVATION DIARY

12 May 2025

Introduction

I am a 65 year old Male, retired, and I live in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. I’m married and have siblings who live in Lancashire, close to my Mother and Germany. I worked in Further and Higher Education ending my career after a succession of jobs ass Head of Department. Since retirement I have continued to make Art because that is what I do and I have the luxury and privilege to do so.

I donate my 12th May diary to the Mass Observation Archive . I consent to it being made publicly available as part of the Archive and assign my copyright in the diary to the Mass Observation Archive Trustees so that it can be reproduced in full or in part on websites, in publications and in broadcasts as approved by the Mass Observation Trustees. I agree to the Mass Observation Archive assuming the role of Data Controller and the Archive will be responsible for the collection and processing of personal data and ensuring that such data complies with the DPA.

Mass Observation Morning

This morning I woke later than usual, at 7:45 am. This might be the single greatest benefit of retirement after twenty odd years of 6:00 am starts. I have my routine so I feed the cat whilst my wife wakes up and then shower and dress. I had toast and the last of the marmalade along with my cup of tea. I read the Guardian on my iPad and listen to 6 music on the radio. At 8:40 am, as I was late, I went into the garden to feed the birds and open the greenhouse for the day. I’m growing a lot of tomatoes this year which are still mostly seedlings and encouraging the native wildflowers in the garden alongside judiciously placed perennials. I returned to the kitchen for a second cup of tea and to do my daily drawing.

12th May Drawing ‘Chopping Board’

I have drawn sitting at the kitchen table at around 8:30 to 9:00 am since 6^th May 2020, a lockdown activity that has become a ritual. The drawing is always something I can see from my seat, the sink, the dishes, the windowsill or the whole kitchen and occasionally an ornament bought to the table and placed next to me. I take between 20 and 40 minutes depending on the drawing, today’s was the short end of twenty minutes.

When I finished the drawing I left the house and walked the two and a half miles to my studio in the centre of Doncaster. I rent a unit in the former Art School that stands next to St. George’s Minster. The first I did when I arrived at 10:30 am was put the kettle on.

Circus Horse after Seurat

Through the morning I set to work repairing a maquette for a sculpture I’m developing. One of my many freedoms now is the ability to do what I want when I want which is as much a curse as a blessing. The lack of a need to make things for exhibitions or to sell can put you in a place where where your natural dilettantism comes to the fore and you end up producing little that challenges. The solution is to try to enjoy the process of making for its own sake, well, it is for me. I stopped for lunch at 12:45 and eat a salad I bought on the way into the studio, I should really make it at home but I’m far too lazy. I usually take 30 to 45 minutes for lunch and read the paper on line while I eat. The news today centred on Kier Starmer’s determination to appeal to the lowest common denominator with an appalling assault on immigration, and therefore immigrants, with an ill thought through policy with so many holes you can only despair of the intellect of his spads and his own venality. It does not help my digestion. I have found that the only way to maintain your own equilibrium in the face of our collective exceptionalism and ignorance is to ignore. I have always voted but the last couple of times I’ve been very tempted not to. The salad, though probably unhealthy, was very nice.

Mass Observation Afternoon

In the afternoon I continued to work on a larger model of the horse. The piece combines strands of work I’ve been pursuing over the last couple of years and is impossible to articulate except through this media. The image shows the revised version sitting on a balustrade I painted for a photographer, Richard, who has the space next to mine. At a quarter to four I bumped into him while I was washing my hands, I don’t have running water in the studio and gave him the balustrade and had a chat about his studio equipment and the state of photography education. I’ve reached an age where I try not to lament but I find it hard to look backwards without rose tinted spectacles.

(Uffington) White Horse

As usual I left the studio at four thirty with the intention of walking home, but today it was 24 degrees C so I caught the bus. 12^th of May 2025 it costs £2.50 to travel two and a half miles and you don’t even need cash, just swipe the card.

I arrived home at five to five and fed the cat before checking my greenhouse and pond and making sure things were watered after such a hot day. The soil where I live is clay so water is retained very well, too well in the winter, so only plants in pots need watering very regularly.

Mass Observation evening

My wife and I had tea at six thirty, a seasonally appropriate chicken casserole, and I read the paper while I ate and we discussed the news in a piecemeal way. These days it’s difficult to get into big discussions without getting upset with the way things are so we tend to avoid big discussions about current affairs unless we find a point of difference or one of us needs to unload.

At seven thirty I washed the dishes and we settled down to watch TV. Monday is quiz night so we watched Only Connect on BBC2 followed by University Challenge and then turned to Netflix to watch an episode of ‘The Four Seasons’ after which we retired to bed and read for a half hour or forty minutes before going to sleep. An that is my day, fairly typical and infinitely varied.