In the temperate climates of the northern hemisphere, grapes come early—but not that early. They are a sure sign that the lion of March is gone and spring is definitely here. These grapes come March and April.
But in the northern hemisphere, if you are not in a temperate climate, your seasonal clock may be in for a shock as was CJ in the Mediterranean climate of northern Morocco. He tries to come to grips with these shocks in my novel Tangier Gardens. Read a free Amazon sample via a safe, clean, secure and direct link @ https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv
Just for a moment… while you still have time… where does your knowledge come from?
Put aside your scientific understanding about the formation of clouds and fog… and consider this image.
Explore. The image is no clearer than your understanding of what you will find hiking into this valley. This was one of the Alpine experiences of Byron, Goethe, Tolkien and Franz Hartmann.
Who is Franz Hartmann? And why does it matter? He wrote “The Foundation of Christian Mysticism”.
Occult is an interesting throw-away domain. It is like a trash can in the science and philosophy labs where everything, that doesn’t quite fit the ‘accepted’ science or philosophy, is dumped.
Franz Hartmann wrote biographies of Jakob Böhme and Paracelsus. He drew links between the past and present.
He was of the day (b.1838, d.1912) when doctors were theologians because in medicine, doctors encounter the unexplainable. And theologians deal all the time with those things unexplainable. So we end up with a theosophical trash can of unexplainables. And those things, the unexplainables, become the reason why we have faith.
As 2024 begins, do not forget to question your sources of knowledge.
Young American coming of age thought he was on a Med holiday; but found himself surrounded by an aggressive landscape haunted by the worst of nightmares–Joseph Conrad’s African and TE Lawrence’s Arabian.
The first doll is the landscape architecture doll. On that doll’s dress can be found painted in delightful detail three stories. That doll contains three stories about the lives and careers of landscape architects. One is about a student, soon to graduate in landscape architecture from university, whose uncertainty endangers his career. The second is about a mid career achiever so eager to succeed that he chances his life. And the last is about a senior professional who just can’t retire.
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Inside that landscape architecture doll is a second doll, an American expatriate doll upon which is painted a pattern at once attractively easy to enter and also difficult to exit. That pattern highlights the interactive threads of each story wherein people, struggling at the sharp edge where multi-cultural theory meets cross-cultural reality, come face to face with the resulting electricity causing unexpected results.
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Inside that expatriate doll is an ethnobotanical doll painted with characters who, in all three stories, explore the hazy edges of people and plant relationships where stories and tales give way to esoterica.
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And inside the ethnobotanical doll is the last and most detailed adventure doll painted with the brightest naive colors with a loudness that hides the hearts of each of the three stories including coming of age in North Africa; dealing with death in Saudi Arabia: and, building gardens with pirates and white collar mercenaries in the Empty Quarter.
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It all begins with a walk in Tangier Gardens, an eBook.
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.
These metaphysical autobiographies will transport you to a realm of discovery beyond the limits of nature and the five senses. Christopher Janus graduated a landscape architect, but his true education came from the most unexpected and unfortunate experiences of his life. In his fictional autobiographies, readers follow CJ on his international travels as he discovers the secrets of the landscape. As CJ navigates through this supernatural world and uncovers its hidden powers, he must grapple with the consequences of his discoveries. Along the way, CJ finds himself balancing between love and loss, life and death, and the supernatural and the mundane. If you enjoyed the supernatural thrill of Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic, you’ll be enthralled by Christopher Janus’s mysterious journeys in “The Landscape Architect“ series.
No, no, no—it’s not the evileye. Couldn’t be. The landscape wouldn’t tolerate such violation, would it?
Living in Tangier, 2000, Christopher Janus, CJ, during his six-month term abroad design study, explored northern Morocco. But his geographic explorations were not the entire story. He was swayed—swayed? How? By what?
Unlike CJ had ever imagined, that geography throbbed with a much larger pulse beat—that of the northwest Africa landscape….
If you are:
-A nature lover or a landscape aficionado;
-Curious about all things green—the environment, plants, gardening, horticulture;
-Intrigued about the northwest Africa multi-cultural, mystical history of people and plants, and their arcane interactions with strangers, then…
NOW, FOLLOW THAT LINK AND PICK UP THE FREE EBOOK, CURIOUS TALES—NOW!
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You wonder… who is this CJ?
CJ is 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 music, literature and all the fine arts with humanitarian, environmental and spiritual sensibilities. Did that help him in Morocco?
Studying landscape architecture, CJ was into pedestrian towns and warm sandy beaches. For his last class, that term abroad design study, he’s been in Tangier, a town with sandy beaches on the Med and a historical pedestrian district, the medina. But CJ got more than he bargained for… and it wasn’t a suntan or a relaxing time.
These 43 curious tales were CJ’s final submittal for his term abroad design study. CJ’s curious tales highlight the strangeness of the landscape he encountered in northwest Africa and… what he learned.
…what! If this is true, then what have you been telling us? Lies? Is that so?!
No…it’s just business.
In order to graduate with a degree in Landscape Architecture, CJ had to complete a term-abroad design study. That was the story in Tangier Gardens.
And in order to complete his term-abroad design study, CJ had to submit a final deliverable. Curious Tales is that final deliverable.
In some aspect, Curious Tales is the short form of Tangier Gardens—but with added style.
In Curious Tales CJ shares, in a series of 43 flash fiction stories, his take on the culture and landscape of northwestern Africa. He describes how the unique culture and landscape of that region have impacted his life and approach to landscape architecture design.
I am happy to announce that Curious Tales is now live on Amazon at this link: https://amzn.to/3nO2WEG
And please my friend, share this post with all of your like-minded friends of the landscape.
