October 17. Day 291. Rose among the thorns

Frank Sinatra said orange is the happiest colour. I tend to agree. Bright, bold, daring and unmistakeably sunny. There's something very "look-at-me" about orange.
Of course, orange is also a universal colour of caution.
That seems particularly apt when it comes to the bougainvillea blooms. Bougainvillea is startling in its beauty but the spiky thorns can pack a real punch. Even though it was decades ago I still remember my Grandfather's run-in with a bougainvillea thorn.
Despite being in his 80s, he scaled our fern house to prune the plant spiking his hand which blew up and took on a hue close to the shade of the purple of that particular genus of the plant. Bougainvillea 1. Pa nil. It is no wonder Hawaiians call it pua kepalo, which means devil flower.
Take home message. Gardening is dangerous. See what I did there? If you try hard anough you can turn any prickly issue to your advantage.
You can also let fear stop you from enjoying so many of life's simple pleasures.
So I say by all means stop and smell the flowers as I did at South Bank this morning. Just remember, avoid the pricks. We will all be happier if we can do that whether they are orange or not.