"M" is for:

I am MAD for words.
(Maybe that's true of most bloggers.)

When Elizabeth of About New York suggested an alphabet game, I signed right up.
M said the word oracle.

M is for Mittens

Little daughter showing off her raggedy red mittens. Skating in London just before Christmas. Some ice is nice.

M is for Marmalade

The Seville orange season is fleeting.

I meant to make marmalade, but my method wasn't mathematical enough. The mixture wouldn't set; my, what a mess!

M is for Mother and child

M is for "(The) Manicure"

M is for Mary Cassatt

Sigmund bought me this Cassatt etching when I was pregnant with little daughter. The child featured in the picture looks very like oldest daughter did at that stage.

M is for Men

Two of my favorite men: my father and my brother.

I snapped them on the beach in the Bahamas.

The similarity of their stance amuses me.

M is for Minstrel

Our mischievous cat. Supposedly masculine, but he acts like a princess. Not mad-keen on cold weather . . .

M is not up to much when it comes to garden words. I could only think of marigolds and mallow - and neither is in bloom at the moment, nor in our garden at all, come to think of it.

M is marvellous for negative, unpleasant words. There seem to be a million of them. Perhaps that is because "mal" means "bad" in French, derived from the Latin "malus."

morbid, miserable, morose, monstrous, manacle, mendacity, melancholy, marauder, macabre, malfeasance, maladroit, massacre, maniacal, malformed, maggot, manipulative, menace, mediocre, malodorous, malicious, malformity, malevolent, mawkish, meager, moribund, mean and the absolute worst: malignant

To counteract these words, we have magic, miracles, merriment, magnanimity and May.

Some M words are context-dependent. For instance: meander, mesmerize, masterful, malleable, medicine and marriage.

M words can be silly, too. I like mollycoddle, malarkey, mambo, moola and mammal.

If you want to play the alphabet game, just let me know.

Elizabeth has A.

Willow has E.

Bon Bon has Y.