Meet Phredber
Phredber is a scruffy bear
But he is loved a lot.
There are places where his fur is thin
And places it is not.
I won him at a fairground,
He was the last one on the shelf.
I won him first to give away
But then kept him for myself.
I took him everywhere with me,
So by the end of that long, hot day
We'd sort of become bestest friends
And I couldn't give him away.
Well, now he's been with me for years,
I know he's not a normal bear,
Coz when I get to where he was,
He often isn't there!
I think he likes adventures
And can disappear for days,
Then turns up in the strangest places
But he never says.
But night-times when I go to bed,
He comes into my dreams
And then I get to understand
Exactly where he's been.
So now that he's not listening,
I'm writing in my book
Of all the things that Phredber did,
For all my friends to look.
Pete Braven 2004
Llewellyn, the last Welsh dragon!
High up on a hill, on the edge of the Black Mountain,
The ruins of a castle can be seen from miles around.
Carreg Cennen Castle is a very special place
Because it has a cave there, deep, deep underground.
There's a farm way down below
And that is Bernard's farm,
With sheep and really long-horned cows
And there is also Battie's barn.
As the sun goes down across the hills,
You can hear the owls awake
And from the barn comes Battibat
To go hunting bugs down by the lake.
He flits around like crazy.
Some people think that bats can't see
But actually, they can see quite well,
As Battie says, "Who's blind? Not me!"
He's also got amazing ears.
They hear so well in fact,
You might think you're being silent
But you can't hide from a bat!
(Cos he can hear you!)
This one evening, in the still night air,
Battie flew up really high.
Right up to and round the castle,
To go hunting deep inside.
One wall is built along a cliff
With a doorway to some stairs.
Battie rested, upside down and looked around
"Hmm," he thought, "I wonder what's down there?"
Pete Braven 2017
Another excerpt from the new book, Llewellyn learns to fly,.. or kinda.
----
Now, most people who have flown would say,
In fact,.. all of them will,
Taking off is easy,
It's landing that takes some skill.
About halfway down Llewellyn's wings
Began, like wings, to make him fly
He swooped real low across the park
Then soared right up into the sky!
Then he remembered all his friends,
Waiting far below.
He just had to tell them,..
Yes,.. you guessed,
There was that landing bit he didn't know!
From where he started turning back
Llandovery seemed a long way down,
But as he got much closer,
That looked like a very tiny patch of ground.
Birds do it all the time, he thought,
So how hard could it be?
I mean, they come in from way up high
And just perch up in a tree.
But he was coming in really fast,
Trees and bushes, blurring past.
His feet touched down and stayed,..
And then it went all wrong,..
His claws dug in and stopped,
But his body carried on!
"OUCH!. Oh ouch,.. ouch, ouch, eek, ouch."
Sky, ground, sky, dirt, sky, tree, dirt, sky.
Bump, crash, smash, thud, "OUCH!" skid, bash.
Was he really meant to fly?
After what seemed a long time bumping
Into almost everything.
Suddenly it was quite still
Although bits of him were hurting.
Llewellyn lay there for a moment,
Sort of tangled, upside down.
Well he could fly, landing was a pain.
Carefully he, looked around,
"I think I'd better ask someone before trying that again!" he growled.
Some swans had seen him though
And marched towards this dragon by their brook,
"Well that was pretty awful,
We thought we'd come and take a look." ......
Pete Braven 2017