A hopeless student chanced upon a hidden garden. In that garden he discovered a process… an arcane process, some might call it simply maintenance, through which plants in real life, become portals–organs of transmutation where the material becomes the celestial. Thus began his life quest.
Do you remember the first time you felt, through your sense of sight or your sense of smell, the absolute magic of plants: trees, shrubs, flowers, leaves?
Do you?
Well, my friends, it is a joy that you can find everyday… is it not?
The glory of that experience is the story of Tangier Gardens.
International travel with all the excitement, all the intrigue—without the wheelies, without the passports, without the hassles.
Colorful Open-Air Markets
Beautiful Flowers
Entrancing Patterns
Exotic Destinations
Peaceful Courtyards
Mystical Labyrinths
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Travel with us to Morocco on a quick, fun trip—Andalusian legacies, languorous gardens, ancient medinas and markets—colorful, exotic markets. These tales bring Mediterranean life to the comfortable home of the armchair traveler.
Some of you may not have any idea about Christopher Janus, CJ, so here goes.
Who is CJ?
CJ is a contemporary designer, an American, born in the Midwest, raised in New Mexico—a hard worker who found his muse in the landscape.
At university he grew to embrace—with humanitarian, environmental and spiritual sensibilities—literature, all the fine arts and their roots in the landscape. Those humanitarian and environmental sensibilities drove his thoughts and explorations.
Underneath it all he had questions about his purpose in life. In other words, he was just like many of us.
Drawing upon his fine arts history, CJ becomes obsessed with his experiences in nature and the landscape—experiences beyond the five senses. Beyond the five senses? The paranormal? You can decide.
But what does he design?
Christopher Janus studied landscape architecture in university and graduated; but they did not teach him about landscape. He learned landscape from the hardest, most unfortunate events in his life.
CJ was studying the large scale landscape and the fine detail of plants and gardens to uncover the essence of design. He did that internationally as he worked in the strangest cultures and most exotic landscapes. Christopher Janus had adventures in and was inspired by the landscape.
You may ask what is the landscape? To which he would answer, “When we get out of bed in the morning and put our feet on the floor, we are in the landscape”. You might rightly ask again, what… my apartment, my flat, my house, my town, my city? To which CJ would simply answer, “they all sit in the landscape”.
CJ chases nature, its landscape and plants to their existential roots. He describes his interactions with cultures, landscapes, gardens and plants of the world—where the unexpected and downright strange become daily facts of life.
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Every morning, around 8AM, I would be awoken by shouting from a man walking down the street outside my apartment window. Where was this? Ville Nouvelle in Meknes, Morocco.
He was yelling NaNa, NaNa…with a lot of nasal. He, wearing qadrissi pants (characterized by a wide and low crotch that reached to the knees), was walking with his donkey. And the donkey’s two saddlebags were chock-full of freshly cut mint clumps for making mint tea at home.
Fresh mint–the only way to really enjoy it is the Moroccan way. Grab a bunch of freshly picked mint and just add a pinch of black tea, too much white sugar and a sprinkle of orange blossoms on top. The water should be too hot to touch, too hot to drink. Got to slurp it. Hospitality without words.
This is local-agriculture-home-delivery. I had seen it once before in the early 1950s where I grew up on the East Side of Detroit. Then it was a local baker–up and down neighborhood streets. What kind of neighborhoods then? One car per family used by father to get to and from work. Neighborhoods sized by cars–not by pedestrians–no walking–only driving. But late 20th century–Meknes, Morocco. It was walkable and local. I loved it.
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
