between a rock and a hard place, or between...

[asakiyume]

Scylla and Charybdis

the devil and the deep blue sea

... any others?

In my personal experience, it's Between the Busy Road and the Poison Ivy



That dappled sidewalk may look inviting, but if you step from the curb YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF TRUCKS AND CARS and if you brush against the foliage on the right, you will have itchy ankles: it's poison ivy.

Two people can't walk abreast very easily there. One person could practice their balancing on the pale curb, or the other could practice elf-walking lightly over the top of the poison ivy like Legolas on snow, but...

... would you like another moonflower?

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Why does poison ivy have to be such a pretty green?

That moonflower is lovely.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Good question! I think poison ivy is the honeybadger of plants.

The moonflowers are absolutely delighting me.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

And such pretty red berries!

Lately I've looked up bryony (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryonia_dioica#/media/File:Bryonia-dioica-White-bryony-20100606a.JPG), which is ingestion-toxic with beautiful berries (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryonia_dioica#/media/File:Bryonia_dioica_004.JPG).

Have you by any chance read Ruth M. Arthur's A Candle in Her Room, which contains a character named Bryony? It's not awfully well-written but it's nonetheless compelling, and was very popular when I was a child.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yes I **did** read it! I remember it being quite scary--an intergenerational story: that was cool. I remember none of the plot specifics, but I do remember reading it.

I didn't recall that it had a character in it named Bryony, but I do remember having come across the name in stories as a kid, so maybe what I'm remembering is its occurrence in A Candle in Her Room.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

Yes, a lovely story of cursed obsession. I reread it and reread it. I think all my friends reread it and reread it. I only know about the quality of the writing because I bought an ex-library copy decades later-- and was surprised during my reread. (I still have the book.)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I read it. I do remember that Bryony and Gillyflower were really popular names for the requisite Fey Child/Strange Young Girl in really bad Gothic romances that I powered through on the library shelves when I was twelve and thirteen.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

The things I missed! I didn't know there were romances as a genre until I was sixteen, though that was a major part of my fondness for Jane Austen and Jane Eyre.

Bryony was the third sister, not Good like Liss and not Naughty like the Dido-stealing sister. But she was corrupted by Doll.