The last week has been a little rough on me with things health-wise throwing a bit of a wobbly – probably not for the last time, things being what they are, but c’est la vie as they say. So to try to get back into things within Second Life, I decided to hop over to see the 2025 winter setting at Lam Erin’s Cherishville.
This is a location I’ve been visiting pretty much annually (at least) since 2017. As a landscape photographer himself, Lam has the eye for putting together settings that are always pleasing to the eye and well-balanced, and this attracts me to his designs. There’s also the fact that whilst each iteration of Cherishville is unique to itself, can oft carry motifs and themes forward one to the next, and I’m a fan of such themes and motifs.
Some of these motifs clear to see for regular visitors to Cherishville, such as the little town theme running through several of his 2024 Cherishville designs, other of which are more subtle in nature
For 2025, Lam offers a genuinely delightful winter setting which offers a new landscape perfectly blending with the region surround to create a very real sense of depth to the design, but which again presents little familiar nods to past designs, even if they might not be recognised as such by the casual eye. There’s also – to me at least – a little quasi-literary touch to be found by lovers of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
The first of those potentially familiar motifs seen with Lam’s designs comes at the Landing Point. This takes the form a railways platform, which here is indirectly linked to a small station house and with a single line of track also close to hand. The latter runs straight eastwards to an engine shed, whilst to the west it doglegs around what looks to be a permanent fairground sitting with its back to the frozen waters of a ribbon lake.
The lake in turn snakes between the high mountains surrounding the setting as snow falls from a leaden sky to blanket almost everything it touches. These mountains in turn help to give the impression this is a place far inland among a snow-capped mountain range, thus given Cherishville that sense of depth. The depth is furthered by the way in which the frozen water cuts through the region, neatly splitting it.
Again, for those familiar with past iterations of the region, this use of water to split the land in twain is a motif frequently found within Cherishville designs. Here, the land is divided between north and south, with a single bridge linking them located at the western extent of the setting.
Splitting the landscape like this further enhances the feeling of depth within it, giving as it does a real sense that human habitation here has been forced to crowd itself into the narrow lowlands sitting between the passage of the lake and the sharply rising slopes of the mountains.
It is here that the visual allusion to F. Scott Fitzgerald – whether intentional or purely an invention of my imagination – might be found. Cross the tracks from the Landing Point and walk towards the two steam locomotives and you’ll find, just off to the right, a little wooden pier jutting out over the frozen waters of the lake.
The pier sits almost directly opposite the grand house on the far side of the lake. When standing on it, it’s hard not to have thoughts of Jay Gatsby standing at the end of his dock staring out over the waters towards East Egg and the bulk of the Buchanan mansion, the Christmas lights outside of the grand house here standing in for the green light at the end of the Buchanan’s dock.
Another attraction – for me, at least – with this version of Cherishville is the fact that while Christmas-y touches are to be found throughout, they are not overwhelming. Thus when they are seen, they tend to feel more like a seasonal addition to a place that has long been in existence, rather than the entire setting built in celebration of the holiday season.
As always with Lam’s Cherishville, this iteration has a lot of detail tucked away within it, indoors and out, with the entire setting highly photogenic. So, do be sure to go and visit – and do be sure to use the local environment settings to see the region at its best.
SLurl Details
- Cherishville (Tuscan Hills, rated Moderate)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 