365: Red; January 7, Delicate lethal

We live about 3/4 of a kilometre from a large, inner-city park. It's off-leash, so we're there a lot with our small, cute, energetic dog.

There is all manner of foliage in this park. Some has been planted by the city; some has come to be there via the wind; some has got there thanks to discarded fruit - in particular a cluster of excellent crab-apple trees, from which we pick to make jelly.

This plant's origins are anyone's guess but I understand this type of bush is not sold anywhere any more, owing to it being dangerous. Those spines there, among the delicate berries, are about two inches long, really rigid and very sharp.

It's a different colour than gorse that grows in Scotland but it put me in mind of that Scotian plant that boarders Culloden. It was into the yellow-flowered gorse with its three-inch spines the dead and dying were tossed to worsen their agony at that last battle.