The Hundred Acre Wood

For day 25 of #blogjune, in which our plans are put off for another day… and just as well

When planning our trip through England I had booked a three night stay at the garden studio of Monk’s House in the village of Rodmell near Lewes. The studio is set in the garden of Virginia Woolf’s country retreat, Monk’s House, and I’d discovered it while looking for a base to visit Brighton and Sissinghurst. In the end we had to shorten our trip a little and so a stay at Monk’s House has been put off for another time.

(Also, in one of those Monopoly “Bank error in your favour” moments in life, due to the Australian dollar improving in value against the pound, when I cancelled our booking with the National Trust I made a small profit even after paying the cancellation fee. Score!)

It was while exploring the area around Monk’s House that I thought of a little day trip to the Ashdown Forest, the real place that served as inspiration for the magical world inhabited by Pooh, Piglet and their friends in the Hundred Acre Wood.

(Pooh and Piglet aren’t there any more but you can visit them at the New York Public Library.)

I didn’t think much more about this little part of our trip until I spotted this wonderful book at Kinokuniya in Singapore on the way home. The Natural world of Winnie the Pooh, by Kathryn Aalto is wonderful – a must for any Pooh (or Piglet) fan!

I’m now pretty glad that we didn’t get to stay at the Monk’s House, at least just yet, because a visit to the Hundred Acre Wood will be much more special after reading this lovely book.

 

Advertisement