My Second Life café hopping continued recently when I bounced into the Burnt Toast Café and Tavern, occupying some 20,400 sq metres of the Full private region leveraging the land capacity bonus (although at the time of my visit, a portion of the land appeared to be either undeveloped or undergoing redevelopment by the holders and so closed to general access).
Those land holders are Emilly Jaynesford and Lee (lisa5791), and together have created a most pleasing little corner of Second Life, packing a lot into the setting without ever allowing it to feel overcrowded. Rather the reverse, in fact and the trails and paths winding through it between the various locations give a sense of space and openness.
A friendly welcome awaits all at the Burnt Toast Café and Pub! Bring friends or make new ones. Drink coffee in the gazebo or have a pint in the pub!
– Burnt Toast Café and Tavern About Land description
The landing point delivers visitors to the top of a stone stairway leading down and away from the broad terrace on which the tavern stands. This terrace extends outwards from one of the curtail walls of rock separating the setting from the neighbouring parcel and helping to prevent structure, etc., from these intruding into the landscape or skyline. The pub faces out over open waters from which it is separated by two wide wooden decks, the lowermost of which extends out over the shingle shoreline, the pair of the decks offering comfortable seating under parasols and warmed by wrought-iron log-burning fires.
The stone steps descending from the tavern’s terrace to split, one arm reaching down to where a carousel turns on a ground-level terrace also overlooking the shoreline, whilst the second stretches down under a stone arch to grasp the tail of a path which teases the way onwards.
Passing an old clock tower sheltering wooden benches under its eves, the path can be used to reach the café itself as it sits within a wildling garden complete with (wishing?) well and a broad, bed-like platform slung beneath a balloon and ready for chats, cuddles or a taking a short ride. On the far side of this garden, a small cabin sits beside a pond to offer an cosy annex to the café, its porch offering a vantage point for observing the ducks on the quiet waters of the pond and the carp swimming beneath its surface – although closer views of both might be had from the leaf-shaped raft also floating on the water. Those with a keen eye will also likely spot the gazebo hiding under boughs and amidst bushes to one side of the garden as well.
Running in the opposite direction to the café, a remaining branch of the path runs through a stone pergola providing access to the west end of the setting and the large wooden pavilion raised within the walls and gardens of an ancient structure – perhaps the land remnants of an old abbey or castle – the pavilion offering itself as a larger dance and events space.
Then there is the orangery, tucked alongside the western edge of the café’s garden and separated from the pavilion in its ruins by hefty nub of mossy rock. With wisteria dripping from its rafters and cosy sofas and armchairs occupying its floor, the orangery presents another place into which visitors can retreat and spend time.
Between all of these points, considerable care has gone into shaping a setting rich in the colours of nature as flowers bloom and shrubs blossom, giving the sense that what might have once been a barren, rocky landscape has been tamed by the growth of plants, shrubs and trees, becoming a more welcoming location than it might once have been; a place with the vegetation have in turn become subject to gentle husbandry to encourage their growth without allowing them to run totally wild.
Care has also been taken to try to blend the vegetation with the curtains of rock forming the borders to the land, such that the artificial nature of the latter is at least softened, if not completely obscured, making them far less intrusive than might otherwise be the case, and the setting even more natural in look and feel as a result.
For those who don’t like walking, or wish to quickly hop to a particular point within the grounds, a network of teleport disks is supplied. Again, care has been taken to try to avoid having these stick out too much, but they are easy to find – and they will be needed to reach a further location: the local beach.
Located over on the west side of the region, this presents a cosy beach house raised above soft sands and with a pool and deck to one side. At the time of my visit, the beach was isolated from the rest of the café’s ground by the intervening parcel which may be awaiting (re-)development as mentioned above, thus making the teleport disks the only easy means of reaching it.
All told, Burnt Toast Café and Tavern is an expressive and charming setting with a sense of welcome and an allure that encourages tarrying.
SLurl Details
- Burnt Toast Café and Tavern (Southern Marvel, rated Moderate)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 