Friday 1 December 2006

Winnie The Pooh

 Lovely graphic from Donna,as ever she has just the right graphic for the occasion .

When I was at Kates the other day,she gave me a little bag that contained a balloon to blow up ,so when we got home Marice blew it up for me and there was dear Pooh ...and on the balloon it said celebrating 80 years of adventures ,with Pooh ,Wow has he been around that long ?Well yes I can remember the storys when I was small , my children ,and then my Grandchildren too,all knew and enjoyed Poohs adventures.

 

 

During the first World War, troops from Winnipeg (Manitoba, Canada) were being transported to eastern Canada, on their way to Europe, where they were to join the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade. When the train stopped at White River, Ontario, a lieutenant called Harry Colebourn bought a small female black bear cub for $20 from a hunter who had killed its mother. He named her 'Winnipeg', after his hometown of Winnipeg, or 'Winnie' for short. 

   Winnie became the mascot of the Brigade and went to Britain with the unit. When the Brigade was posted to the battlefields of France, Colebourn, now a Captain, took Winnie to the London Zoo for a long loan. He formally presented the London Zoo with Winnie in December 1919 where he became a popular attraction and lived until 1934.

   The bear was also very popular with Christopher Robin, son of author A.A. Milne. It was his favourite animal at the Zoo, and he often spent time inside the cage with it. The bearwas Christopher Robin's inspiration for calling his own teddy bear Winnie.....Winnie the Pooh (this teddy bear started out with the name of Edward Bear). The name Pooh originally belonged to a swan, as can be seen in the introduction of Milne's 'When We Were Very Young'.

   A.A. Milne started to write a series of books about Winnie the Pooh, his son Christopher Robin, and their friends in the 100-Acre-Wood. These other characters, such as Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga and Roo were also based on stuffed animals belonging to Christopher Robin. The characters, Rabbit and Owl, were based on animals that lived, like the swan Pooh, in the surrounding area of Milne's country home, Cotchford Farm in Ashdown Forest, Sussex. It is this area on which the 100-Acre-Wood was based.

   'Winnie-the-Pooh' was published by Methuen on October 14th, 1926, the verses 'Now We are Six' in 1927, and 'The House at Pooh Corner' in1928. All these books were illustrated in a beautiful way by E.H. Shepard, which made the books even more magical. The Pooh-books became firm favorites with old and young alike and have been translated into almost every known language. A conservative figure for the total sales of the four Methuen editions (including When We Were Very Young) up to the end of 1996 would be over 20 million copies. These figures do not include sales of the four books published by Dutton in Canada and the States, nor the foreign-language editions printed in more than 25 languages the world over!

 

A.A. Milnes son Christopher Robin,now, was he the boy that inspired the song .....?'They're changing gaurd at Buckingham palace,Christopher Robin went down with Alice ',

Jan xx

 

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, that was great! Tammy

Anonymous said...

The balloon is super Jan Love it!! I don't know of anybody who doesn't love something to do with Winnie The Pooh.I love Eeyore and Tigger myself.I have Eeyore believe it or not as my bathroom pull light switch.LOL!! My First Grandson have me his and  suggested I put him on the end of the pull,when he was small as he said my china one was too small.He used to say. Grandma I carn't get hold of it LOL!! So since then thats what I keep He comes off to be washed in the weekly wash LOL!! and then gets fastened back on.I wouldn't part with him for nothing when my Grandson gave me this as a small child.My personal favourite was always Rupert Bear though.Which I did do a rhyme of in my early entries.Loved the story you have told to us.Enjoy your balloon LOL .Take Care have a lovely Week/End
Astoriasand http://journals.aol.co.uk/astoriasan/MYSIMPLERHYMES

Anonymous said...

That was lovely did'nt know all that. Love Joan.

Anonymous said...

Hi Jan ,loved reading all about Winnie the Pooh,your balloon and graphic are lovely .Do you remember Tony drew and painted the nursery with the Winnie characters for Rachel when she was born and a good job he made of it too. Have a good weekend .......Love Jeanxx

Anonymous said...

Loved the pics!
As always, enjoyed the history. :)
Have a great day.
Hugs, Sugar

Anonymous said...

Lovely, Jan.  I didn't know the story of the little black bear.  There was some very interesting memorabilia on the Antiques Roadshow a few weeks back, including a book signed by `C.R. Milne'; did you see it ?  Bunny x

Anonymous said...

That was sooo interesting, Jan!!  I have always been a fan of Winnie the Pooh, and loved the song "Christopher Robin", but never researched the meaning behind either one.  How fun it was to read this history!
Thank you for sharing it!

Hugs
Jackie

Anonymous said...

Jan that was an enjoyable read ~ I remember seeing a film about "Winnie" not too long ago on TV and that was enjoyable ~ Ally

Anonymous said...

Hi Jan,  Thanks for telling us all about Winnie, our favourite bear.  My favourite has always been "Pooh on a Blustery Day".  I have loads of Pooh graphics that I love to use in my journal, they are so bright and cheery. Have a great weekend. :o)

Love  Sandra xxxx


http://journals.aol.com/labdancer51/SandrasScribbles/

Anonymous said...

thanks for telling us about Winnie, I love this little bear and have quite a few toys of my own from 100~ Acre~ Woods, my favorite being Eeyore, I aloso have quite a few dvds and videos, just shows what a big kid I am at heart
take care Lynne xx

Anonymous said...

This is so wonderful.  I truly did not know about all this.  Thank you for sharing. Big hugs and GBU, Shelly

Anonymous said...

This was very interesting, thanks for sharing the story with us who didn't know about it. Hugs, Helen

Anonymous said...

I loved Winnie The Pooh when I was young. I still do. I had a collection of books when I was young that I read over and over.  I had forgotten about them, until I got pregnant.  At my baby shower my mom presented them to me to read to my own son.  How cool is that?
This was a great entry!  Thanks so much for doing it.
Pam

Anonymous said...

love the entry. Love winnie the pooh and the graphics you have.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the history of Winnie the Pooh, learned something today :-)

Anonymous said...

pooh is good but tigger is better :)

Deb

Anonymous said...

I sure liked that story about the Canadian Infantry and their Bear "Winnie". Thanks you for it. My Regards, Bill.

Anonymous said...

I love the 'Pooh Bear'  and especially like Eyeore...I have a sparkly pin that I love to wear.  It says 'I'd look on the Bright Side if I could find it."  That's me always looking for the brighter side of things.  'On Ya' - ma

Anonymous said...

Awww, don't we all love Winnie the Pooh!!
Thanks for telling us the history behind the star ;o)
Sara   x

Anonymous said...

Aww I love Winnie the Pooh! And LOVE those pajamas, Eeyore is my absolute favorite! I knew most of the story behind it, but not all. Thanks for sharing!

Morgan
xxxx
http://journals.aol.com/Sneezy7125/RandomThoughts

Anonymous said...

Interesting story I never knew that!
love bella xx

Anonymous said...

Dear Jan
Myf amily and freinds always loved Winnie the Pooh as did I!
Winnie the Pooh books have that wonderful charm , adventure and just good writing that Milne was knwon for! thank you!
I hope you are well! cheers!
natalie

Anonymous said...

I do love Winnie the Poo and piglet and all his friends.  I never knew anything of the background, just revelled in the stories.........he is cute isn't he and a trusty companion read :) Rache

Anonymous said...

My Becky adored the Winnie the Pooh books.  My son wasn't thrilled with them because he was a car and truck lover.  Those books are such classics.  You just don't see that kind of writing anymore.  Have a lovely Sunday.  xxx Chris

Anonymous said...

Winnie the Pooh loved all the stories. When I was a young sprog (many years ago)
I organised a poohsticks club down at the local park flourished it did. Ah Happy days

Take care
Dave

still roaming the country on my own Preston today

Anonymous said...

Well I didn't know half of that - thanks for telling us Jan :-)

Jenny xx

http://journals.aol.co.uk/jmoqueen/MyLife

Anonymous said...

Great post hun..I didn't know any of that either!! I love stuff like this!

Lv Stevie
xxxx

Anonymous said...

I always did love Winnie the Pooh and watched the films with my grandchildren.  You get to know children's classics very well when you tend grandchildren  You get to know what really makes characters work for kids. I noted you say you are lefthanded on the sidebar.  Seems like nobody is left handed anymore.  My sister and I were, 2 out of 5 daughters, but not one of our grandchildren or great grands are. I am 75. I wondered if we were more defiant.  Then I think even infants keyboard so they can run their computers! Maybe we think both hands now.   Gerry
http://journals.aol.com/gehi6/daughters-of-the-shadow-men/

Anonymous said...

Aw Jan you struck a chord with me too.  I think we appreciate children's poems much more when we are older.  I could not make head or tale of 'nonsense' poems as a child.  In my fifties I came across a copy of 'When We Were Very Young' at a friend's house and became fascinated by the poetry, 'The Four Friends' is my favourite.  I found a copy of WWWVY at a jumble sale and managed to buy it for 50p.  Then I saw this book for sale in an antique shop for £18!!

I like this one too as it has a nice sort of rhythm to it:

Brownie

In the corner of the bedroom is a great big curtain
Someone lives behind it, but I don't know who
I think it is a Brownie, but I'm not quite certain
(Nanny isn't certain, too)

I looked behind the curtain, but he went so quickly -
Brownies never wait to say "How do you do?"
They wriggle off at once because they're all so tickly
(Nanny says they're tickly too).
:D :D :D
Freda

Anonymous said...

love that graphic! Jan, that was so interesting, I didn't know that story.....Winnipeg, Manitoba are familar names to me as my mums old boyfriend was from there.....enjoyed that! Linda xx
http://journals.aol.co.uk/lindachapmanuk/metamorphing

Anonymous said...

Awesome entry Jan! I knew none of this what so ever. You certainly know your history!
Dianna

Anonymous said...

Well I never knew that about Winnie the pooh. . .i love winnie too. I like your jamas too.