…off the beaten track.
Sometimes it is necessary.
I know a guy, CJ, who almost died looking for that refreshing breath.
Tangier Gardens is his story: https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv
Take the First Step
Tag Archives: Tangier Gardens
They Own You
Blanket a mountain? Cover sharp ridges and narrow gulleys?
Forests hide mysteries… even from a distance; but when you walk into them… they own you.
There are some things you can’t hide in a forest–CJ found that out in Tangier Gardens–read about it here: https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv
Landscape and CJ
20,000 feet or on the ground…
In Tangier Gardens, CJ learns about landscapes, gardens and plants. Landscapes are mysterious because they harbor weirdness as he learned from Bree and he sensed from his West Africa experiences.
In Yenbo Palms, CJ once again gets wind of unusual things in the landscape, this time in the deserts of Arabia.
These stories are not for, or about tourists. They are about the expatriate who never dreamt of leaving home. They are about a person who is, like most of us, inspired by the beautiful and endlessly varied landscape.
He loved landscape so much he studied it in college and earned a degree in landscape architecture. But what he learned in school didn’t prepare him for the expatriate landscapes that perplexed him. Arcane landscapes? Could there be such a thing?
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.
Tangier Gardens, buy it now on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv
Dichotomy?
CJ studied fine arts for his first two years at college. In music, literature and painting he found an enigmatic similarity. Many composers, authors and painters were inspired by nature, either the outdoors or human nature. That was clear.
It was, however, the dichotomy of the critics that confused him.
The critics’ perplexing dichotomy pitted human social nature vs the natural world, nature without humans. He wondered why the dichotomy? Were not humans part of the nature in which we all lived? Even though humans were at the top of the food chain we were still part of the chain. How can behavior, intelligence or spirit separate humans from the nature all around us?
And why have so many sought to make that ‘false’ distinction?
CJ’s own battles with this dichotomy got serious when, after deciding to major in landscape architecture, he went to North Africa, for his term abroad design study.
There he met a couple esoteric horticulturists, one Russian and the other British. They had built and were guardians of an arcane garden, the Oval Garden, behind their Hibiscus House. There they tried to educate CJ–solve his enigmatic fine arts, landscape and garden concerns.
Taos, New Mexico
Listen to Christopher Janus’ own words: “In New Mexico the picturesque landscape captured me… but I felt there was something more… I couldn’t put my finger on it.
“At university, I dug into the fine arts and landscape architecture. I read JB Jackson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, FL Olmsted, Ian McHarg and others, seeking the deeper content of the landscape. Some people today write that sense of place and landscape are similar—they are… nebulous, ambiguous, enigmatic, impenetrable… need I say more?
“A strange thing happened. The more I researched, the harder I looked, the foggier became my results. Then I did my term abroad design study in northwest Africa, Morocco.”
And then what happened?
Take a walk in Tangier Gardens and find out. Arcane adventures on the way.
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Collective or Individual–Freedom?
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.
Read Tangier Gardens. Re-live the fun.
How great, peaceful and refreshing are the simplest pleasures of nature’s plants.
Have you forgotten? Then read Tangier Gardens.
Vacation without hassle? Dig this.
International travel with all the excitement, all the intrigue—without the wheelies, without the passports, without the hassles.
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.
*Curious Tales*
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The Difference? There is none
What do you think happens day to day with your term-abroad students? Check this out–student on the way for his term-abroad design study in Morocco, passes six days in Spain–the difference between a slide lecture and real life.
SIX DAYS IN SPAIN
This sequel becomes the Tangier Gardens prequel. Three Vella episodes tell the entire story. Please visit for a quick read: Six Days in Spain at = https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0BWPT2ZHZ
Please check it out.
Tangier Gardens
For a limited time only…
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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The Interzone or Garden of the Hesperides?
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