Category Archives: landscape

On the Road to Morocco

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Six Days in Spain before Tangier Gardens

WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE TANGIER

I had to edit the peculiar highlights of CJ’s term abroad design study adventures in Andalusia and among the Moors. Please read the Kindle Vella–3 episodes, and don’t be surprized, at: https://amzn.to/3ZHeuHX

CJ in Andalusia, “… the Alhambra: mocarabes, muquarnas, marquetry–geometry, patterns everywhere. Here it was all about the worlds within worlds of micro inspection. Everything intertwined–micro to micro–then micro to macro–then macro to macro–then macro to micro. And at the end, I had turned in on myself.”

CJ among the Moors: “I was at sea–absolutely nothing was certain. I must be frank. I almost failed my self-directed Moroccan design study.” 

Please read the Kindle Vella–3 episodes, and don’t be surprized, at: https://amzn.to/3ZHeuHX

Better still read Tangier Gardens, you can find it here:

https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv

And please note that 15Apr2023 will be the launch of my second book, Curious Tales: you can find it here:

https://amzn.to/3Jn3N7n

All my books are about a young person (CJ) growing up and learning lessons that form his approach to design. CJ studied Fine Arts before majoring in Landscape Architecture. My first two books explore CJ’s experiences in northwest Africa, especially northern Morocco and Tangier where he lived during his term-abroad design study.

Take a look. Fun reads.

The Difference? There is none

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What do you think happens day to day with your term-abroad students? Check this out–student on the way for his term-abroad design study in Morocco, passes six days in Spain–the difference between a slide lecture and real life.

SIX DAYS IN SPAIN

This sequel becomes the Tangier Gardens prequel. Three Vella episodes tell the entire story. Please visit for a quick read: Six Days in Spain at = https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0BWPT2ZHZ

Been there? Done that? Visit it again!

Please check it out.

Tangier Gardens

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For a limited time only…

It’s the year 2000. CJ needs a break. 

Been there? But have you done that?

He has been busting his hump full time six years at university with one more class till

graduation–a term abroad design study.

CJ’s studying landscape architecture, into pedestrian towns 

and warm sandy beaches.

He’s on his way to Tangier, a town with sandy beaches on the Med 

and a historical pedestrian district, the medina. 

But, it didn’t quite work out. 

When the West meets the East… there is always turbulence.

https://flahertylandscape.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Tangier-Gardens-SD-480p.mov
Tangier Gardens

For a limited time only, Tangier Gardens e-book is FREE on Smashwords at:

https://bit.ly/3SIAfma

Pick it up!! Did I say the e-book is FREE!!

If you like it, leave a short review, please. Thank you.

The Interzone or Garden of the Hesperides?

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There are four distinct Berber communities in Morocco.

A weak breeze and a few late wisteria flowers prepared me to be charmed by the view of the Strait of Gibraltar the way I like it, a safe distance–a comfortable distance away from that strangely aggressive magic, that throbbing aura of Joseph Conrad’s Africa. The more I thought about it, the more I could feel that hot African breath prickling the back of my neck.

I was in Gibraltar, sitting with a man who knew his way around the Tingis region.

“But the maquis, the maquis, what about the maquis?” I asked.

“The maquis? The maquis is all that’s left. The remnants, the refuse of a great botanical richness that used to be. Old growth has been stripped. The maquis? Nothing but a few odiferous weeds. Suitable for the Interzone.”

“The what?”

“The Interzone, just as Burroughs’ wrote. But it’s real. Look at any satellite image. The Interzone is a land nobody owns–separated by the Sahara from Africa and separated by the Mediterranean from Europe. You don’t think so? One continent with towns like Timbucktu, Gran Bassam and Little Popo–another continent with towns like Rome, London and Paris. You tell me what happens where those two continents meet…the Interzone.”

“Wasn’t that some kind of 1950s fiction?”

“Didn’t you understand? It’s a real place, not a literary fantasy, but a geographic reality! Listen, in the Interzone rootlets from Africa and Europe attack and they attach. They try to suck energy from you. African rootlets suck European energy. European rootlets suck African energy. Anyone who lives there long enough becomes a crippled schizoid.”

Learn more about this strange conversation in this FREE short story, The Rock, online on Amazon Vella: https://bit.ly/3Hv6p2p

Loaded Down?

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So was CJ!

He wrote,

“I had no idea how much sub-Saharan West Africa influenced Morocco. I was in over my head in Tangier. This tale is sad. I needed help.”

Read about it in his Tales til Christmas: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0BNZDYKKC

Or read his own story, Tangier Gardens: Out of the classroom into real life, via plant portals.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Mediterranean Sun, Sand and Palm Trees

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La Baie de Tanger–the beach at Tangier with the medina and Kasbah in the background. No wonder CJ thought he had it made for his term-abroad design study.

What could possibly undo the beauty of this landscape, its plants, its gardens, its sun and sandy beaches?

Or is the question, rather, what could enhance this outstandingly beautiful landscape?

CJ had his hands full.

He tried to explain it in a series of short stories about his six months in northern Morocco. He called his very short stories tales. 

Tales? 

Tales because in Morocco, for the first time in his life CJ couldn’t distinguish between fiction and fact.

CJ’s tales are the reveal.

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Those very short stories are, for the first time, being released on Vella everyday between now and Christmas Eve.

The first three episodes are FREE and 16 tales have already been posted. Find them here=http://bit.ly/3B9rJXE

ENJOY!!

All 43 tales will be found under one ebook cover titled Curious Tales and via KDPselect will be offered for FREE on the day of launch likely in the first half of 2023. Sign up here to be notified of the launch date to get all 43 tales for free=https://bit.ly/3q5lcaq

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If you wonder what actually happened during CJ’s six months in Tangier, pick up the eBook, Tangier Gardens–out of the classroom into the real world–via plant portals, FREE on Smashwords here: https://bit.ly/3SIAfma

ENJOY!!

Dragons’ Blood Trees

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Dracena cinnabari and Dracena draco, found on the islands of the Socotra and Cabo Verde archipelagos.

These dragons’ blood trees are found naturally in only two places, both in the Tropic of Cancer. These two places are separated by a continent and 8,000 kilometers.

The mature dragon’s blood trees regularly have four meters or more clear trunk before the branching and leaves. They are rare and unusual–magnificent trees to behold.

More surprisingly, different cultures, separated by oceans and thousands of kilometers, agree on the paranormal curative properties of the dragons’ blood trees.

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In the La Montagne region of Tangier, CJ was on his way to visit the old residence of the Portuguese ambassador, now a private villa, named, “Loins du Monde Real”, (far from the real world), when he encountered not one but a forest of dragons’ blood trees. He was reaching his first plant portal—it was real but there was nothing normal about it.

CJ had no idea what was a plant portal until he visited with the Russian and British horticulturists now living in the “Loins du Monde Real” villa. The strange culture, the North African landscape and Mediterranean gardens were not what he expected.

CJ tells about his adventures in his short stories, his tales. Those tales are, for the first time, being released on Vella everyday between now and Christmas Eve: find them here=http://bit.ly/3B9rJXE

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The first three episodes are FREE and they include SIX tales. Find them here=http://bit.ly/3B9rJXE

ENJOY!!

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All 43 tales will be found under one ebook cover titled Curious Tales and via KDPselect will be offered for FREE on the day of launch likely in the first half of 2023. Sign up here to be notified of the launch date to get all 43 tales for free=https://bit.ly/3q5lcaq

***

If you wonder what actually happened during CJ’s six months in Tangier, pick up the eBook, Tangier Gardens–out of the classroom into the real world–via plant portals, here: https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv

What do you have to lose?

Tales til Christmas

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Stinger in the tail…or tale?

The strange culture, the North African landscape and Mediterranean gardens are not what he expected.

In June 2000, Christopher Janus, an American landscape architecture student at a mid-western university, finds himself in Tangier on a term-abroad design study. 

CJ, as his friends called him, could not wait to be home for Christmas.

To complete his Moroccan term-abroad design study, CJ writes about his strange culture, landscape and garden experiences in a series of 40 short stories.

Those short stories are now, for the first time, being released on Vella everyday between now and Christmas Eve.

http://bit.ly/3B9rJXE

Take a break and ENJOY!!

Hope Landscape

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Find the hope.

The popularity of landscape photographs these days is the result of our lives being so turbulently fast-paced that we humans have an unquenchable existential thirst. We try to satisfy that thirst by absorbing in a one second glance at a landscape photo the peace and inspiration so essential to a fulfilling human existence. But we do not have the time to go out in the real life landscape to actually bathe our souls in it.

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Do you agree?

If so, maybe you’d like to read the landscape stories I write.

Sign up to my email list: https://bit.ly/3q5lcaq

Read my ebook, Tangier Gardens, it’s free on Smashwords: https://bit.ly/3SIAfma

The Firstest Snowfall

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It is about waking up to a joyful surprise.

Went to sleep hearing the rainfall on the roof. It wasn’t cold, but late autumn coolness everywhere. The falling rain eased me into sleep.

Oh, that first snowfall of the winter…oh, that first snowfall of the year.

There’s nothing quite like it. Waking up to the first–clean, bright, yet not glossy–the best white.

Yesterday’s Autumn.

Yesterday like that.

Today…

Joy on high–the first snowfall!

In life, natural things have always attracted me, so I look for them and write about them

I am a nature lover and a landscape aficionado.

I am curious about all things green—the environment, plants, gardening, horticulture.

And because I am intrigued about the multi-cultural, mystical history of people and plants, I have lived in North Africa, Europe and the Arabian Peninsula.

If you are into these same things, then please visit my Smashwords page or join my email list.