Winnie-the-Pooh Day

© Mark Phillips/Alamy

Today we"re in England"s Ashdown Forest, a tranquil patch of woods 30 miles south of London in East Sussex. We"ve wandered here because this is the enchanted forest that inspired author A.A. Milne"s depiction of Winnie-the-Pooh"s neighborhood, the Hundred Acre Wood. It"s our way of celebrating Winnie-the-Pooh Day, observed each year by the Pooh faithful on January 18, Milne"s birthday. The author, along with help from illustrator E.H. Shepard, introduced the world to Pooh and his many forest friends with the beloved "Winnie-the-Pooh" books, first published in 1926.