by Thomas on March 8, 2010
The much anticipated and all-new Dobbies Garden World in Aberdeen threw open its doors for the very first time on Friday.
The new store has created 70 new jobs.
The site at Lang Stracht, replacing the existing store near Hazelhead Park, cost £11.6 million to create and has brought 70 new jobs to the local community.
San Francisco-based artist Clark Sorensen caused great interest with his flower-inspired urinals, which are an intriguing feature of the men’s toilets at the new store. Customers can choose between an orchid, an arum lily, a pitcher plant or a more conventional design if they prefer.
Clark Sorensen designed the eye-catching urinals for the new Dobbies store
James Barnes, chief executive of Dobbies, is excited about the trailblazing store and believes it illustrates Dobbies’ commitment to the green issues: “The Aberdeen store is a concept for a new generation of garden centres in the UK and the benchmark from which we will launch all future stores.
“Opening our Aberdeen garden centre is a step towards our future vision to create stores which are carbon neutral.”
The Rose dress was designed by Amanda Montague from Aberdeen's Gray's School of Art.
A fun-filled opening ceremony also featured a model wearing a dress created from roses, paying tribute to the fact the store has been built on the former site of the city’s famous Cockers Roses business.
Dobbies indoor plant advisor Jimmy McRae, 55, who has worked on the site for 40 years, commented: “I’m so proud to be able to help open the new store. I know our customers in Aberdeen will love our new garden centre.”
by Thomas on March 3, 2010
Enter the chicken house at your own risk – that’s the sign that Michelle Cordell might need after it emerged that her feisty cockerel Dude led three companion hens into battle against an intruding fox. The result? One dead fox and four victorious featherweights.
Foxes beware. The chickens are fighting back.
Cordell, of Basildon, Essex, became aware of the unlikely coop coup when she discovered the vanquished fox in the chicken house during a routine egg collection.
“I was so shocked,” she explained to the Metro website. “When I went to the chicken coup they were all fine but, when I went to the other side, the fox was lying there dead.”
Striking a blow of revenge for chicken-kind against their historic enemy, it seems that Dude, along with hens Izzy, Pongo and the aptly named Pecky, knocked over a table which hit and dazed the young fox who was then mercilessly pecked to death.
Cordell described the scene of devastation that greeted her in the chicken house: “[The fox] had little blood marks on its legs that looked like they had been pecked. It had not been dead long. The fox was not a cub but it was only a young one and Dude and Izzy are big birds.”
The owner had lost a cockerel and a hen at the hands of a fox before Christmas, but it is not known if the culprit from that incident was the victim of the latest battle. However, a vigilante-style revenge attack cannot be ruled out.
Cordell sounded a warning for any fox considering tit-for-tat justice: “I reared Dude from a little chick and he has become very protective over the others. Now he is a murderer.”
No doubt Dude would reject that label and claim he was merely acting in self-defence. But one thing’s for sure: he’s cock o’ the walk now.
