Mysterious Witch…

February 18, 2024 by eflaherty

Mysterious? What are you talking about?

Background:

I enjoy exploring the details of landscape and gardens.

Hamamelis mollis = witch hazel is now in bloom everywhere in the colder areas of the northern hemisphere.

Yesterday I was walking outdoors and discovered this Hamamelis mollis hybrid in glorious winter flower. I checked for a scent and enjoyed a light but gently intoxicating fragrance. Hamamelis? Common name = witch hazel.

Why witch and why hazel? Answers online and in books inconclusive and vague. Not a hazel and nothing to do with witches.

And the fragrance, nobody in the home-grown-health, medical or perfume communities could define or replicate that witch hazel scent. Check it yourself.

So where do I turn?

I, a novelist, have created a protagonist in my image—obsessed with landscape, gardens and plants. In my novel, Tangier Gardens, the protagonist, CJ, explores in Morocco the landscape of northwest Africa as well as the gardens and plants of Tangier.

You can sample his story for free @ https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv

Before the snowdrops…

February 11, 2024 by eflaherty

Snowdrops? You mean snow flakes? No, I mean Galanthus nivalis, snowdrops, the earlist bulb flowers of spring.

Promises…

Before the snowdrops–the hazelnut promise.

At the same time of the year when we hope for hazelnuts, CJ in Tangier Gardens was enjoying the tangerines, the clementines, his rare relief. Read some of Tangier Gardens for free @ https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv

Yearning for spring are we? — Tangerines and more.

Xmas lingers…

February 4, 2024 by eflaherty

Christmas doesn’t.

Xmas tree labyrinth–don’t they know it’s February!

I knew a guy once who couldn’t figure out the difference between Christian months and Islamic months–and he damn near lost his life. I wrote a novel about it: Tangier Gardens, try it then buy it @ https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv

Scherenschnitt and Winter

January 21, 2024 by eflaherty

Winter tree model for paper-cutting, scherenschnitt

Decades in the Arabian Peninsula on the Tropic of Cancer and winter cold becomes welcome.

Ice: winter cold

CJ spent so much time on the Tropic of Cancer in Arabia that he desired the cold of winter; but as a youth in Tangier Gardens, he didn’t know that was in store for him.

Buy the book and find out how it came about @ https://bit.ly/3SIAfma

Apple? …not the computer!

January 14, 2024 by eflaherty

An apple a day keeps who away?

The doctor?

That pesky author of Tangier Gardens?

If you want to keep that author away, buy Tangier Gardens @ https://bit.ly/3SIAfma

By the way, that image? The mature apple tree in winter. There is always hope.

THE ESSENCE OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

December 24, 2023 by eflaherty

Landscape Architecture makes the benefits of nature’s prescription accessible to all, regardless of belief, politics, sociology, economics, sensual deprivation, age or gender. Take a walk with me in this snowy forest path image, or in Tangier Gardens where a student, CJ, first realizes the essence of landscape architecture.