This is a typical Moroccan medina water fountain that, in Tangier Gardens, CJ was planning to study. Why?
Because these beautifully tiled fountains were local community nodes for daily gathering of water to use at home. Everyone felt and knew the importance of water supplied by these beautiful fountains.
In Tangier Gardens CJ documents his attempt to study these community landmarks–and the strange challenges he faced. Today, Tangier Gardens ebook is FREE!
And coming next week Vella.02. A NEW Vella story = North or northwest?
What is it?
Majoring in Landscape Architecture, CJ is in Tangier on a term abroad design study. The visit occurs at the turn of the 21st century, barely before the 9/11 disaster.
The landscape had always been CJ’s muse. But in Morocco, he did battle with it. He was confused by it. He tried to understand it. Its oriental roots ran deep across the entirety of north Africa.
But he discovered that the Moroccan landscape had equally strong roots deep into the dark heartland of west Africa. In Morocco. In the coming Vella, CJ recounts some of his northwest Africa explorations.
Every spring is a joy! So let’s cheer the warmer sunny days, fresh spring greens, dancing flowers, sweet scents–everyone of those entrancing joys.
Celebrate the first day of spring with an additional joyful special–a FREE OFFER.
For five days only around the first day of spring, I offer for FREE my debut eBook novel, Tangier Gardens. On the mesmerizing Mediterranean coast, the story revels in the discoveries of Med landscapes, gardens and plants.
aficionados of landscape architecture, the Med and Morocco.
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In this bildungsroman, Christopher Janus, his friends call him CJ, needs a break. He has been busting his hump full time six years at university with one more class till graduation.
CJ’s studying landscape architecture, into pedestrian towns and warm sandy beaches. For his last class, a term abroad design study, he’s on his way to Tangier, a town coincidently with sandy beaches on the Med and a historical pedestrian district, the medina.
In Tangier Gardens, the author draws upon his years of extensive experiences in the Middle East and North Africa to weave a fascinating tale of intrigue.
Just released, this fast moving novel is on a ‘Spring Joy Special’, the eBook is regularly $3.99 but to celebrate the coming of spring 19-23 March, I offer it for FREE.
If you Google Tangier Gardens you will find books filled with fine photos of gentrified medina homes in Marrakech, Fes, Tangier, Rabat…
CJ’s head was spinning. His term abroad study landed him in Tangier. The cross-cultural stuff came at him fast and furious. He was on a landscape journey–without end.
CJ was born in the USA but Tangier was not the USA. Back home the suburbs were all green, every house had front and backyard gardens and downtowns, every street was lined with trees and city parks were aplenty. Frederick Law Olmsted’s legacy was as far as the eye could see. But that was home.
Tangier, the medina, the kasba a town for centuries and CJ could not find one tree or even one plant.
Here is what he found–nothing–classic hardscape-only urban realm–not even a weed pushing through paving cracks. Green AWOL. But population density as high as NY City. CJ wondered is it a muslim thing–from the Koran, the Hadith–or just local Cherifs? It was another of the cultural mysteries he encountered. They kept coming like address cards in a full rollodex.
But he did learn some history of public water delivery. And CJ did learn that the urban green was hidden in the private courtyards of every riad in the medina. He found a ’smart urban green’, a small urban green, a manageable urban green, protected, quiet, hidden from public noise, hidden from public view.
The Landscape Architect is the title of a series of fictional autobiographies. These are CJ’s autobiographies. In this series, CJ reveals the twists and turns in the development of his career as a professional landscape architect via his interactions with cultures, landscapes, gardens and plants of the world—where the unexpected and downright strange become daily facts of life.
When you dig intoTangier Gardens, you will find a contemporary coming of age action novel about CJ (Christopher Janus), who like us is facing a broad range of distressing challenges.
CJ needs a break. He has been busting his hump full time six years at university with one more class till graduation.
He wanted just a few moments of repose before getting on with his career.
Didn’t happen. We all sadly know that story. But how did CJ deal with it? Tangier Gardens is that story.
CJ, studying landscape architecture, is into pedestrian towns and warm sandy beaches. For his last class, a term abroad design study, he’s on his way to Tangier, a town with sandy beaches on the Med and a historical pedestrian district, the medina.
However, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar and landing in Tangier immediately upsets his planned easy observe-and-check-the-box design study. He is thrown off balance and he has to start all over from scratch–no more easy study.
With Andalusian legacies, languorous gardens, Moroccan markets and ancient medinas, Tangier Gardens brings Mediterranean life to the armchair traveler.
If you are:
-A nature lover, into urban gardening or a landscape architecture aficionado;
-Curious about all things green–the environment, plants, gardens, landscape;
-Intrigued about the North African multi-cultural, mystical history of people and plants, then
Tangier Gardens is my debut novel in the series The Landscape Architect. Is the landscape CJ’s worst enemy or is he his own worst enemy? Can he design his way out of this conundrum? Could coming of age be more awkward?
…for millennia…Tangier has been a nexus of Mediterranean, African and European cultures…a classic melting pot that is still on the boil.
Christopher Janus, CJ, had visited Morocco once with his mom when he was only seven–he had memories. He remembered sun and fun. Now nearly two decades later he, studying landscape architecture at university, was planning a design study term abroad. This, however was to become a different journey. The Moroccan tourism advertising was for sun and fun. That’s what he hoped for.
He had been six years full time at university. He needed a break. Sun and fun on the Mediterranean in Morocco? Great Moroccan markets in the pedestrian-only medinas? What was not to like?
When CJ crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and arrived in Tangier, the cultural complexity…the mists of cultural history…the cultural reality fog overwhelmed him. His carefully planned design study disappeared into a thickly uncertain maze. In this journey, he was blinded. He couldn’t find any portals.
His attempts to work through that maze is the basis for my upcoming novel, Tangier Gardens.
Nigh onto 10 years ago I had just finished 25 years building gardens and landscapes in the Arabian Sands. The Sands were my life.
But be sure about this…the Sands are more than sand.
To reflect the huge unknowns of the Sands, my blog banner became part of the enigma of the Sands. Exotic for a Midwestern American, you bet. But exotic is a 25cent tourism marketing adjective. The Sands are not.
Ten years have passed. I live in another exotic landscape, this time a mountain landscape. Ten years of explorations in this new landscape have enthralled me, so I am updating the blog banner.
Exotic? Borders on magic realism, neo-romanticism and eco-gothic. They are all alive and well in exotic landscapes. as are rarely predictable and always inspiring plants and gardens. Just take a walk, open your eyes and ears. Listen, feel, see, discover.
Old banner–the sands–always an enigma–sun but no soil or water.
