Kathryn Aalto - The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh: A Walk Through the Forest that Inspired the Hundred Acre Wood

From In Which Christopher Robin and Pooh Come to an Enchanted Place, and We Leave Them There (The House at Pooh Corner)

The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh

A walk through the forest that inspired the Hundred Acre Wood

By Kathryn Aalto

From In Which a House Is Built at Pooh Corner for Eeyore (The House at Pooh Corner)

Timber Press
Portland, Oregon

Copyright 2015 by Kathryn Aalto. All rights reserved.

Published in 2015 by Timber Press, Inc.

Permissions and credits begin on page 295.

Thanks are offered to those who granted permission for use of materials but who are not named individually. While every reasonable effort has been made to contact copyright holders and secure permission for all materials reproduced in this work, we offer apologies for any instances in which this was not possible and for any inadvertent omissions.

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Text, jacket, and binding design by Kristi Pfeffer

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Aalto, Kathryn, author.

The natural world of Winnie-the-Pooh: a walk through the forest that inspired the Hundred Acre Wood/Kathryn Aalto.First edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-60469-717-9

1. Ashdown Forest (England) 2. Forests and forestryEngland. 3. Winnie-the-Pooh (Fictitious character) 4. Milne, A. A. (Alan Alexander), 1882-1956Homes and haunts. 5. Shepard, Ernest H. (Ernest Howard), 1879-1976Homes and haunts. I. Title. II. Title: Exploring the real landscapes of the Hundred Acre Wood.

DA670.A73A25 2015

578.094225dc23

2015009691

A catalog record for this book is also available from the British Library.

From In Which Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle (Winnie-the-Pooh)

To the walkers of the world who know the beauty is in the journey

From In Which Piglet Does a Very Good Thing (The House at Pooh Corner)

The Hundred Acre Wood (Winnie-the-Pooh)

Introduction

R eading A. A. Milnes stories for children is like tasting my grandmothers lemon meringue pie: the crust, tangy curd, and pile of meringue transport me to frothy, faraway days. In California summers, my large family gathered together in the dappled light of my grandparents garden, and there were always lemon meringue pies. Those were carefree and fleeting times, when the most important thing I had to consider was which tree to climb and what direction to wander. The pie and these books are bound in nostalgia for bygone days.

Like you, I was read stories from Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner at bedtime. Decades later, I have read the same stories to my children. The two teenagers cannot hide the twinkles in their eyes. Their younger brother rolls on the floor, clutching his sides with mirth and jollity. Their expressions reveal a tenderness for the adventures of the characters who inhabit the Hundred Acre Wood, a fictional landscape that is based on a real place in England. They still laugh zestfully at Milnes clever wordplay, dry humor, and silly plot twists. They adore E. H. Shepards sensitive illustrations, asking me to hold up the heavy red book just a little longer as Piglet tries to be brave or Pooh tries taming a slippery message-in-a-bottle.

A. A. Milnes prose is joyful, E. H. Shepards drawings exquisite. Their collaboration created a classic, one of the most beloved and cherished childrens books of all time. There is so much charm to Milnes writing in the way he captured a tender and free time of childhood, and created characters from an economy of words.

Winnie-the-Pooh is loyal and compassionate, playfully composing impromptu poetry and hums, and visiting friends for a smackerel of something. Like a four-, five-, or six-year-old, he is also a magical thinker: If I plant a honeycomb outside my house, then it will grow up into a beehive. This and other admirable traits have inspired a plethora of books on philosophy, psychology, and literary criticism, including The Tao of Pooh, Pooh and the Philosophers, Pooh and the Psychologists, and Postmodern Pooh.

We know the bears other friends as well. His best friend, Piglet, is nervous and timid, just a little fellow who often overcomes his fears at Poohs side. And then there is Rabbit, who personifies the person of action; he is the best speller among the animals of the Hundred Acre Wood and he likes to organize, take charge and write bureaucratic Rissolutions. Out of earshot, Rabbit has said, Owl, you and I have brains. The others have fluff. If there is any thinking to be done in this Forestand when I say thinking I mean thinkingyou and I must do it. Of course, we readers know Owl cannot even spell his own name (note Wol) and especially not Happy Birthday. Still, he is regarded as the wisest of the animals of the Hundred Acre Wood because he can use long words and iswell, long-winded. Dear Kanga is maternal and loving, while her little one, Roo, is always eager to try new things and test mothers boundaries. (I can swim, says Roo. I fell into the river, and I swimmed.) If a person is feeling a bit like Eeyore, everybody knows this means gloom and pessimism have settled in. Eeyores counterpart is the effervescent Tigger. Introduced in the second book, The House at Pooh Corner, Tigger is the most exuberant of the forest animals, but he has issues with self-restraint and controlling his bounce. (I didnt bounce, I coughed, he says when accused of hooshing Eeyore into the stream during a novel game of Poohsticks.)

Last but not least, there is Christopher Robin. He is the benevolent and gentle child leader of the forest, a friend to all, and one of the most famous characters in childrens literature. He was also A. A. Milnes real son, and his menagerie of stuffed animals provided the inspiration for these tales in an equally real place called Ashdown Forest, a landscape of sweeping heathland and atmospheric woodlands thirty miles south of London. The forest is a man-made landscape distinctive for large and rare heathland punctuated by gorse and bracken. A plant native to western Europe and Africa, gorse is a thorny shrub, closely related to broom. Bracken is a large genus of coarse ferns, and heath is a family of woody, low-growing shrub. The forest was at the doorstep of Milnes home, Cotchford Farm, and the sweet tales of adventure and friendship were set here.