Hello Friends!

Here is a drawing I did in pen in my art journal that I copied from a book called “The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh, A Walk Through the forest that inspired the Hundred Acre Wood” by Kathryn Aalto. This drawing is on page 165 in the book. But I didn’t do an exact replica. The trees are different in mine and I obviously need to practice drawing these sweet chracters from my childhood memories! This is Pooh, Piglet, and Tigger, in the story from “In Which Kanga and Roo Come to the Forest, and Piglet Has a Bath” (Winnie-the-Pooh)

I love the original drawings of E. H. Shepard. He created all of the characters after observing Christopher Robin’s real stuffed animals. It also amazes me that A. A. Milne used his son’s real name in his stories. Also, apparently, Milne’s wife, Dorothy, nicknamed Daphne, “was the first person to give voices and personalities to the characters who would call the Hundred Acre Wood home.” (pg. 41 of this book)

The photos in this book of the real places that Milne used as inspiration for his stories are beautiful! What a gorgeous place he had to live and write!

The last part of her book is “A Visitor’s Guide-The Flora and Fauna of Ashdown Forest.” The photos are awesome!

If you loved Winnie-the-Pooh as much as I did as a child (and STILL DO,) then I highly recommend this book! I still have all of the VHS tapes of the various Pooh cartoons that were on t.v. when I was a kid. Our kids watched them and I have the more modern stories made in the early 2000’s.

Strangely, though, we never got around to reading the original books to the kids. I didn’t read them growing up either! Not sure how that happened. But I did have record albums of some of the stories that I used to listen to over and over. I wish I still had those!

So that’s all for now. I need to work out and clean some before the kids come over this weekend.

What are some of your favorite stories from childhood? I am curious!

Have a wonderful day, and give someone you love a big hug! 😀