Turning Over a New Leaf

I’ve looked up this phrase and can’t find the origin anywhere. Sources say ‘unknown’. So does this mean literally turning over a leaf…on a tree? Why would you unless you’re looking for caterpillars and I don’t suppose that applies to too many of us? Not enough anyway to have generated a special phrase. And if it’s on the ground it’s probably an old leaf. So without further information I have to conclude that it refers to a new page, a leaf in a book. Today, 1st January, is not just a new page, it’s a whole new book. Take the one on the right for example. A 2017 Diary. Unprepossessing on the outside but inside a leaf for every single day. I hope by this time next year it will be filled with wonderful things. 

Coincidentally I am writing a whole new book. You’ll forgive me I hope for a tiny bit of cheating. I have already written the first chapter but this venture is still very much in the planning stage so I think it’s fair to describe it as new. I’ve decided to return to contemporary romantic fiction and to my beloved Cotswolds. I’m planning a short visit with my daughter next week, in the name of research of course, and maybe to buy some sweeties. It’s some months since I was last in the area and the feel of a place is so important. The warm honey-coloured stone seduces me every time and it would lovely to think I could instil some of that into my novel. So, with a few leaves already turned over, it is still to me a new leaf.

I woke up this morning wondering what it must be like to have a birthday on New Year’s Day. Yes, I really am writing this on Sunday, 1st January 2017. I’ve always felt sorry for people whose birthday falls on Christmas Day – one or other must inevitably be diminished. But the beginning of a whole new year, a personal whole new year. That must surely be something special. So I leaped out of bed, figuratively speaking, and ran down the stairs, also figuratively speaking and here I am. I had no thought of writing a blog today but sometimes you have to go where the mood takes you and this one has me all fired up.

So, for anyone who has a birthday today, may your day be as wonderful and special as you would wish. For the rest, the overwhelming majority, I wish you a very Happy New Year and hope every leaf you turn produces some magic.