Sunday 14 September 2008

Stuart Cable tip Top Talking


Top Talk

I ask Kerrang! Radio presenter, Stuart Cable, about his childhood gardening memories.
“Dad was always in the garden.” he recalls. “We grew up in Cwmaman, in a Miner’s terrace house with the garden at the top of loads of steps. Dad was always up there and I used to think gardening just took up too much time. Perhaps he was trying to get away from my Mother, thinking about it!” He laughs.
Are those famous ex-Stereophonics, drumming fingers green? “I do enjoy my garden and I have made hanging baskets with my son Cian, this year – they look great now. I would love to grow my own veg and stuff but I don’t know enough about it really.”
He may not grow his own yet but he enjoys cooking. “There’s not a single vegetable that I don’t like.” He claims proudly, “I’ve recently bought a slow cooker and tonight I’ve got bolognaise with mushrooms, real tomatoes, carrots, peas, onions, celery, chilli and garlic. That’s easily my 5 a day,” he boasts, referring to the 5 portions fruit and veg recommended daily for a healthy lifestyle. “It’s easy to get 5 a day with one-pot cooking. I always buy organic veg when I can and love those Farmers Markets.”
What’s Stuart’s own garden like? “It’s very mature; lots going on. I know there’s a plum tree and an apple tree and a big purple one that I’m not sure about. I’d like to know more about what things are and what to do to them. You should come up and tell me,” he suggests. “I do notice what goes on and what’s flowering but it would be good to know what they are. I spend a lot of time in the garden, playing with the dogs or sitting on the deck in the hammock with a glass of wine listening to music.”
Has the great outdoors inspired his music – poignant lyrics maybe? “Good God no – Kelly would never have let me write anything.” He laughs.
“My son loves being outdoors too; in fact the only way to punish him for anything is to send him to his room. When I was small, the biggest punishment for me was to be kept indoors and he’s the same. He even has a packed lunch for school so he can get out and play quicker.”
I ask Stuart about his views on the current environmental issues. “We do need to change,” he muses, “but it has to begin with the big boys, in China and America. I wonder am I really going to make a difference knocking off a light switch when all the power stations are still spewing their rubbish into the atmosphere? I drive a diesel car and a mechanic told me that diesel burns cleaner than petrol yet diesel is dearer ...Why? There’s no incentive. These days everyone wants to travel further and do it cheaper and quicker. The first plane I went on was when I was 26 years old after signing my first record deal – it wasn’t long before I was catching two a day and I just got bored by it all.”
What are the plans for the drummer’s new band, Killing for Company? “It’ll be great if we get a record deal but at the moment I just want people to hear and enjoy our music. We are having fun and it just feels right when we (brothers Andy and Steve Williams and Greg Jones) jam together. The new line up are all Welsh boys and Stuart concludes passionately, “I tell you what, If we had guaranteed sunshine here for just a month or two we would prosper as a country. There is nowhere in the World as beautiful as Wales.”


My Week

Enjoyed the HSBC Cardiff 10K running to raise money for Kidney Wales. Great to see so many people outdoors and being active. Exercise is so important for the mind as well as the body. Very much looking forward to organising the first Crickhowell 10K next spring.
Signed up for my dry stone walling course and can’t wait to start. This one is out of choice ‘though the industry wants everything to be certificated now - ridiculous that men that have been doing these things day in day out for years now have to prove their competence to an 18 year old with a clip board and shiny shoes.
Have vowed to buy all my meat from proper butchers or farm-shops after seeing ‘Food Gone Bad’ this week; when are we going to start valuing ourselves and our bodies enough to say ‘No’ to rubbish. The only part of a pig that wasn’t used in some of the processed products, was his squeak.


Feel Amazing


Walk barefoot in the early morning dew on the grass. Walking barefooted makes you feel more ‘grounded’; more connected with the Earth and Nature and the soft morning dew is great for your skin.

Green Goss

Wise words from neighbour Dai Dobbs, when he heard we were laying 6 cubic metres of concrete in work, “The trouble with life, is that all your successes are written in sand and your failures are written in concrete.”


Gadget Girl


Rainbow’s are Nature’s little bits of magic and the recent unsettled weather has provided lots of them. However now you can have a rainbow in your room at the flick of a switch. This amazing little gadget is both entertaining and relaxing and makes a great child’s night light. Using multi-coloured LED’s to recreate the natural colours of the rainbow onto ceilings or walls it’ll brighten up your day or night. For more details visit www.boysstuff.co.uk. Priced at £29.95 - unfortunately it doesn’t come with a pot of gold at the end of it.

Horti-scopes
VIRGO


Virgo’s love keeping busy and can lean on the side of being fussy and obsessive. Their garden will be neat and tidy and they will always be fanatical about mowing their grass regularly. Virgo’s often specialize in, or prefer, a specific area of gardening and will love topiary. A Virgo’s shed will be well organised and they always put things away after using them. Virgo women prefer artificial plants and flowers in the house as real ones can make a bit of a mess and Virgo children would rather play on the carpet than on the grass.