Ordinary Interrupted

I live with my husband and two cats in a cottage that’s over a hundred years old by a river in the countryside. The garden is lush with grass and damp underfoot, nurturing robust willows and rampant weeds. The house is damp too. In the summer it’s cool and in the winter we have to heat it with four storage heaters and two multi-fuel burners, giving way to condensation, damp and mould, especially in the bathroom, which is where I find myself on a cleaning day. To purge the spacious shower stall of black mould, which attacks the grouting in the tiles so ferociously it’s a fortnightly job, I have to get inside. I need a step ladder for the ceiling and bleach is my weapon. On my mission to annihilate unsightly spores and stains, I encounter secret inhabitants that usually only come out at night: tiny black beetles scuttle across the bathroom floor, spiders curl up in the safety of delicate webs, gnats and tiny flies dot the paintwork, hibernating from the chill of autumn. And then, mid-spray, I’m ambushed by inspiration:

alien crane fly
skates across the bathroom sink
long-legged haiku

© Kim M. Russell, 2016

daddy-long-legs-spider-012

Image found on www.theguardian.com

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Haibun Monday #22 (Extra)Ordinary days

This week, Grace is hosting Haibun Monday and, for this week’s prompt, she has asked us to think about a moment of our typical day (first person singular).  This can be our morning routine, commute, day in the office, a walk in the afternoon, household chores, grocery shopping, gardening etc. The challenge is to write and find the ‘extra’ in our ordinary day,  focusing on the basic unit of composition– one paragraph and one nature-based haiku. Some examples of the 3 line haiku can refer to the changing seasons, smell of rain, scents of flowers, moon, sounds of the night creatures, etc.  Grace has made suggestions from which we can pick or we can think of one of our own; for inspiration, she has given us quotes about seeing the beauty and extra in ordinary days:

“I built my home in the feeling of waking up at dawn in a new city, where every road is the right road because there is no ordinary. Everything is as profound as you make it.”  Charlotte Eriksson

“Falling in love is easy. Falling in love with the same person repeatedly is extraordinary.”  Crystal Woods, Write like no one is reading

“We have one precious life: do something extraordinary today, even if it’s tiny. A pebble starts the avalanche.” K.A. Laity

“Extraordinary magic is woven through ordinary life. Look around!”  Amy Leigh Mercree

59 thoughts on “Ordinary Interrupted”

  4. That’s a lot of cleaning Kim ~ And frankly I will be scared to climb up and see all those night creatures ~ However, I like the poetic imagination of those creatures specially the long legged haiku ~ Have to be careful you don’t fall off from that step ladder ~ Take care ~

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  6. This made me laugh. It’s good to pause and admire the beauty of nature, even if it turn’s up in one’s bathroom! These old houses shouldn’t really have double glazing – they need to breathe. Ah, well, good luck with the autumn cleaning! Icky job.

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  8. Cleaning the shower is the worst job that I have to undertake. I don’t let it get too bad in there but it really needs a good updating with new tiling…that would help matters. I use bleach sometimes too! Love your haiku, Kim. I can just see that critter skidding across the sink.

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  9. Oh lovely!!!!! this is wonderful. I am reminded reading your haibun here of Issa’s “rest easy, spiders. I don’t clean much.” YOu have such a talent, Kim….a blossoming thing to behold. And I don’t mean the mold. Do you have Kaboom in your part of the pond? Kills mold on contact. Amazing stuff…but not as good as your verse.

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    1. We don’t have Kaboom but we do have something called Cillit Bang, which sounds kind of similar. Despite the struggle with a little bit of damp and mould, this house rocks. I love it here. We’ve been here 16 years now and I can’t imagine living anywhere else . We have a river, trees, wildlife, nice neighbours and we’re not far from the coast. I thought I’d always be a Londoner but I’ve fallen for North Norfolk in a big way!

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  10. I can understand why. Our house was built in the 1880’s. and my husband has rebuilt it (many times) It’s 3 miles from downtown Atlanta, but we have such huge trees around …and fields of kudzu in the back. A vertible forest, full of raccoons, possums, rabbits, etc. Hawks are big overhead. I fell in love with our house in 1973 and would live no other place. Houses grow on you.

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  11. I grew up in old houses so your poem reminds me of my childhood shivering in the winter and broiling in the summer. I’m glad there is some poetic license here, otherwise the poem would be a perfect fit for Halloween. I like spiders too, the wife doesn’t.

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  22. I think this is a wonderful illustration in jealousy. In reading the opening, I was thinking, “Oh my word, I want what she has!” but then you proceeded to describe the problems you face. That’s true for all of us, isn’t it? Certain things about us seem envy-inducing, but when you dig underneath you get to the hard bits.

    This is excellent writing. Every word. I think my favorite part is the sentence that closes the paragraph and introduces the haiku. Well done.

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  23. Oh I am smiling at this one — not at the task at hand, standing on the ladder spraying, I imagine smelling the bleach — but the inspiration of the long-legged haiku! WONDERFUL! 🙂 May we all find such joys in our mundane tasks!

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  24. I’m so glad that you’re not squeamish around spiders. I let them have their space in the house, although I’d prefer that they not bite me while I sleep (which has happened from time to time). As for mould, bleach is the only thing that I’ve found to keep it under control. It’s an endless (and thankless) task. And the haiku is wonderful.

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    1. Hi Misky! I got back in there again today and I’m making progress! And all the insects were out in the sunshine today! Thanks for your kind comment on the haiku – the alien’s gone too!

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  26. A day late, but not a word short, I stand on queue & admire your haibun. OLD HOUSES, LIKE OLD CARS, & OLD MEN NEED A LOT OF MAINTENANCE. (Pardon my caps).

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  27. how extra-ordinary – the crane flt found its way into both our haibuns though I was not armed with bleach. You tell the truth behind the vintage cottage romance but undeterred you make poetry from spores

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