Love landscape? Don’t turn your back.
He was confused and in Morocco.
His last hope was a garden.
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.
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Like to Solve Puzzles?
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…journeys of adventure and discovery, or…
MATRYOSHKA—the Russian nesting dolls for CJ
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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.
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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.
Take a walk in Tangier Gardens.
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#Tangier #Morocco #NorthAfrica #Africa #MediterraneanGarden #Landscape #arcane #adventure
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Take a break from your real life and explore Tangier Gardens
Autobiographical fiction and TODAY ONLY 99 CENTS at Smashwoods this link: https://bit.ly/3SIAfma
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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.
Bad juju? Nah. What else?
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…
Pick up a FREE copy of this Amazon E-book here: https://amzn.to/3nO2WEG
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.
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#Morocco #Tangier #Mediterranean #FlashFiction #LandscapeArchitecture #Design #Cultures #Gardens #Plants #Landscape
Please share this FREE offer with your landscape friends.
Thank you.
…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.
Thank you.
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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It’s the year 2000. CJ needs a break.
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
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.
For a limited time only, Tangier Gardens e-book is FREE on Smashwords at:
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And how did CJ’s Tales til Christmas end? Read on.
Christmas, Not Yet
On the twelfth day of Ramadan, Maalem Hamid and I arrived at the shop about 8AM. Maalem Hamid finished the outstanding work. I watched him do the final touches. I helped where I could; but I was tired and mostly watched. He did a lot of detailed tooling; his assistant did leather stamping.
When they finished the first book, the maalem proudly offered it to me for examination. I took it. I hefted it. I felt it. I inspected it. I paged through it. Yes, it was beautiful–content aside, it was every bit as delectable a product as I could have ever hoped for.
About two in the afternoon, when he had finished the details, he wrapped the five books in thick brown paper himself. Then he ceremoniously presented to me the final five books. I placed the balance of what was due for his services in his hand. Then we shook hands. He was proud. I was proud.
And honestly, it had been such a pleasure to watch the exceptional craftsman handle his tools, and produce such a refined result in appearance, in touch, and in technical strength. I thanked him.
He walked with me to the Place El Hedim where I took a Petit Taxi. He and I both waved until he was out of sight.
Almost sunset when I arrived in the Ville Nouvelle. Lights on in Tom’s place. Knocked and showed them one of the final copies. My time in Morocco was up. Over the past six months, Tom and Marcela had given me shelter every time I needed it. I owed them.
Arranged to have dinner together at a 5-star Ville Nouvelle hotel restaurant the next night.
I spent the day packing. I took Marcela and Tom for dinner at the Hotel Transatlantique with a full-blown late-night Ramadan Iftar buffet special, filled with more options than I could list. It didn’t make much difference to me because all through the Iftar dinner I was dreaming not just to be home for Christmas, but of a White Christmas.
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Christmas Now
The morning of the fourteenth day of Ramadan–couldn’t believe it–my personal last day of Ramadan–my last day in Morocco!
Tom drove me to Casablanca airport. We left early in the morning when it was still dark. Three hours on the road–a Moroccan autoroute. Raining and gray, low clouds all the way. The earth was sucking in all the moisture. Plants looked happy. The ride, though, was a slog.
I was emotionally depleted. My last Moroccan memories like the first–sensually extravagant. We had parked and I was walking. Just at the pedestrian entry to the airport terminal–my sense of smell was assaulted by–clusters of Eriobotrya japonica trees in flower–excessively sweet to the place where fragrance meets odor. Goodbye Morocco.
Finally, I was off the ground. Casa-Brussels-NYC-home. I was outta there! Phew! Never thought it would happen. Relief.
But then there was also sadness. Ma’salama. I’ll never be the same. But then I mentally blinked–twice–reset.
Wonder what Santa will bring?
Back home. I paused in transit in New York, had to go through passport control and customs. Outside, it was snowing. Thanked my lucky stars to be standing there where at least I hoped I could live happy in the land of the free. The country where we can sleep in peace at night when we lay down our heads.
Last flight…after gathering my luggage, I looked around and thought, I am starting again. LittleWing was the first I saw, then Kate and Sam–they all met me.
Kate joked, “Look who got a Med sun tan.”
Sam observed and, with a smile on his face, gruffly asked, “Did you order this winter wonderland snowstorm?”
But Sachy was the first to wrap her arms around me–eyes all aglow–a huge smile on her face as she ran up to greet me. Hugged me hard and in my ear she whispered, “Home for Christmas!”
I stepped back, looked deeply into her eyes. It was her, Sachy, in real life, in front of me. Could this be? I held Sachy by her shoulders and said, “Lovely weather for a sleigh ride!”
I put my arms around her again, pulled her ever so close and, in the tightest of hugs, I whispered in her ear, “This is not a dream–my heart is warm–I couldn’t have done it without you!”
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CJ made it home; but Morocco, unbeknownst to him, lingered.
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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, here: https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv
