Have you ever shown off, strutted about vainly like a peacock? There’s a word to describe that and it’s derived from the Latin, pavo, meaning peacock.
Verb – pavonise or pavonize.
It’s not a word in common usage today though has been highlighted by Susie Dent, lexicographer, on social media.
Can you find a way to sneak it into conversation?
What can be more important, as a writer, than words? I love words; their meanings, their origins and use. I particularly like discovering new words.
My quirky word for today is quidnunc, which I first came across in the film, Love Happens. It means an inquisitive or bossy person and its origin is from early 18th century Latin – quid nunc? What now?
I’m sure, at some point, quidnunc is going to appear in one of my stories. It’s too good to pass over.
Do you have a quirky word or a favourite word to share? I’d love to hear from you.
It’s that time of year when many of us talk of New Year Resolutions. I admit I gave up making them many years ago. They felt more of a burden than a help. That’s not to say I’ve become aimless or goalless, however.
Today, I looked up synonyms for the word resolution and discovered the phrase ‘Determined in Mind’. It refers to having a resolute unwavering focus, which sums up very well what is needed as a writer.
Be determined in mind and keep writing.
I left my blog hanging in the last few months of 2025, a run of health issues sapping my energy and sometimes, though not always, my creativity.
Nonetheless, 2025 was a year of writing, of finishing pieces and continuing to go to my supportive writing group. Most significantly, I finished my children’s (middle grade) novel and it will be published at the end of April 2026. Here’s a sneak preview …
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Clocker-Liz-Mackenzie/dp/1806341719
The front cover image will be finalised shortly. It’s very exciting.
Whatever your plans are for creative writing this year, I wish you well. Keep at it. I first dreamt of writing a book for children when I was 11. By the time The Clocker is published, I’ll be 67, so never give up on your dreams.
I’m delighted to have another poem published on Edge of Humanity Magazine.
https://edgeofhumanity.com/2025/12/10/dementia/
I’m really delighted that one of my poems, called The Hat, has been published on Edge of Humanity online magazine.
Please follow the link:
https://edgeofhumanity.com/2025/10/30/the-hat/
When I first came across Kahlil Gibran’s poem, On Children, back in the 1980s, I was taken by the way in which those words are a guide to parenting. He said:
“Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and the daughters of life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.”
As I looked at the images caught on my trail camera in the garden, it struck me that, similarly, our gardens are not our gardens. We are merely their custodians for a period of time. Badgers have lived where my garden resides for many more years than I have; foxes too. It’s a humbling thought and one I hold as I go about tending my garden, ensuring there is water for the wildlife, flowers for the bees to seek pollen, safe places for hedgehogs.
My garden is not my garden. I share it with many others and I feel privileged to do so.
Fox July 2025
Drip, drip
Drop, drop
Five, ten, twenty, more
Plip, plip
Plop, plop
Trees whisper, encore.
Birds sing their lilting chorus
As flowers sway
To rain’s symphony.
©️ Liz Mackenzie
On the eighth of the eighth, 1988, I ordered a kettle. Over the phone; in those days there was no internet superspeed shopping. I was exuberant as I hadn’t had a new kettle since 1960 and the naughty wee thing had finally conked. I suppose it had lasted well. It was my first electric kettle and I was so proud of it; I used to smile at myself in its shiny copper coating. My 80s one was to be a tall, slim model; a Morphy Richards.
Having ordered it, I somewhat forgot; life events took a rather odd turn and I continued to use the old hob kettle I’d inherited from Gran. On the eighth of the eighth 2008, exactly 20 years since my order, the kettle arrived. It actually had a hand-written apology note for the delay. I guess that’s why they call it ‘snail mail’ these days?
©️ Liz Mackenzie
Here’s five facts about Footdee:
So armed with these facts, why visit this tiny place? It has the Silver Darling restaurant, a nod to the old Scottish name for herring. There’s an obelisk, Scarty’s Monument; you could be forgiven for thinking it’s a memorial but it’s really the ventilation shaft of a disused sewage point. The war memorial commemorates Footdee folk who died in first and second world wars. The roundhouse was the former harbour master’s station and the marine operations building is shapely in gleaming glass.
All these pale to nothing when you meet the enchanting network of cobbled walkways hosting quaint cottages and quirky sheds. It’s said upcycling gave birth here long before television shows claimed its popularity. Rusting mangles and fishermen’s boots host flowers and trailing plants; lifebelts become the means to name a shed. It’s a time stands still, steeped in history (almost) hidden gem.
How had I missed it in the 60 years I’d been visiting Aberdeen? I spoke to my aunt, the Aberdeen oracle who’s lived in the city since she was five. Her face lit up. “Fittie? I love it. We used to go there often, walking round each path admiring the little cottages all dressed up.” If you’ve been, you’ll know what she means. If you haven’t, don’t overlook this fascinating, model village style piece of social history. Can you resist?
©️ Liz Mackenzie
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