Tag Archives: Morocco

Did you ever wake up to find… yourself living… in a strange place?

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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.

E-Book FREE NOW Here: https://amzn.to/3nO2WEG

#Morocco #Tangier #Mediterranean #FlashFiction #LandscapeArchitecture #Design #Cultures #Gardens #Plants #Landscape

Please share this FREE offer with your landscape friends.

Thank you.

E-Book Free Now Today

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E-Book FREE NOW Here: https://amzn.to/3nO2WEG

#Morocco #Tangier #Mediterranean #FlashFiction #LandscapeArchitecture #Design #Cultures #Gardens #Plants #Landscape

This is a tonic for the curious, for those who would delve beyond the surface knowing there is more than meets the eye at first glance.

Please share this with your landscape friends.

E-Book FREE NOW Here: https://amzn.to/3nO2WEG

#Morocco #Tangier #Mediterranean #FlashFiction #LandscapeArchitecture #Design #Cultures #Gardens #Plants #Landscape

Thank you

Graduation? Not yet.

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Here: https://amzn.to/3nO2WEG

#Morocco #Tangier #Mediterranean #FlashFiction #LandscapeArchitecture #Design #Cultures

Travel with us to Morocco on a fun trip. Together we will be weaving culture with horticulture. That arcane weave is the magic connection of humans with nature.

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.

Studying landscape architecture, CJ was into pedestrian towns and warm sandy beaches. For his last class, a term abroad design study, he was 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 good time.

And the subject of CJ’s 43 tales? …his daily life, the high points, the low points–nothing was normal–it was all curious.

Here: https://amzn.to/3nO2WEG

#Morocco #Tangier #Mediterranean #FlashFiction #LandscapeArchitecture #Design #Cultures

Please share this with your landscape-minded friends.

Thank you.

The True Story

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…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.

Morocco–the real Morocco

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100% Moroccans 100% of the time

Day-dream or the real thing?

On an early summer day in Gibraltar I was relaxing on a hotel terrace, shaded by wisteria, looking towards Africa, Morocco, Tangier. At a table near me, I met a grizzly old American landscape architect named Herb Striet. He talked about the geography at the Strait of Gibraltar.

Why was Striet in Gibraltar?

Striet was in Gibraltar because his old-time Lebanese friend ran the bank where Striet kept his off-shore accounts. “It’s convenient,” Striet said, “I can easily go back to my Tangier if I want.” Then the conversation got weird. I couldn’t understand. He twisted. I got twisted; but I listened.

“Heh, heh,” he said, “…if… if I want.” I didn’t really get the picture. He continued. I summarize.

All the while he had been working and living in the Arabian Peninsula, Striet said he had missed the freedom of Morocco, North Africa, the Maghreb. He had missed the accessibility of the Moroccan people. He had missed the intimate human nature of their medina public realm. He had missed life in Morocco, very real, just 100% Moroccans 100% of the time–Morocco, where daily life was not flash like the oil-countries of the Arabian Peninsula. He told me his daily public realm life in the oil-rich Middle East was awkwardly filled with contracted, sad-faced expatriate service people.

At the end, I finally understood, almost, that Striet had a love/hate thing with Morocco. So nice… but…

And all this is mellowed-out by C418’s cut “Door” on his Alpha album.

Curious Tales: The Prequel is free to read on Kindle Vella at this link: https://bit.ly/3Hv6p2p

And the story behind Curious Tales is Tangier Gardens and it is available on Amazon at this link: https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv

Curious Tales Ebook will launch 15April at a huge discount: Sign up here for details: https://bit.ly/3q5lcaq

Please share this with your like-minded friends.

Curious Tales Prequel 01

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In Curious Tales, CJ wrote:

“I was at sea–absolutely nothing was certain.

“Back home, at university, in my original Design Study Statement, I wrote that I would evaluate the use of water features in the Moroccan medina urban public realm, with a view toward deriving a metric of understanding their physical and cultural components.

“I must be frank. I almost failed this self-directed Moroccan design study.

“My time in Tangier took me to some deep places—some I had seen before. Others? Most peculiar…I didn’t know where I was. And others still where I was glad to be.”

But that is CJ’s tale; this prequel is my story.

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 had been strolling lazily, inspecting the Gibraltar hotel where I was staying. I walked through the Barbary Bar out onto the shaded Wisteria Terrace. Nobody was sitting out there. Off season. Siesta time of day. Perfect quiet for me, perfect for daydreaming–my way of searching for the orange gardens of the Hesperides.

Curious Tales The Prequel is free to read on Kindle Vella at this link (https://bit.ly/3Hv6p2p)

And the story behind Curious Tales is Tangier Gardens and it is available on Amazon at this link (https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv)

Curious Tales Ebook will launch 15April at a huge discount: Sign up here for details (https://bit.ly/3q5lcaq)

Please share this with your like-minded friends especially if they are:

-A nature lover or a landscape aficionado;

-Curious about all things green—the environment, plants, gardening, horticulture; or

-Intrigued about the northwest Africa multi-cultural, mystical history of people and plants.

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 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

Na, Na… …Na, Na

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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.

Had to tell that story–thus CJ was born. Read about his experiences in Morocco. He wrote about them in Tangier Gardens: Out of the classroom into real life… via plant portals.

The ebook is FREE now at Smashwords via this link.