With summer supposedly due any time now (here in the UK we have more in the way of liquid sunshine falling from the sky than we do the warm, bright dry type), I hopped over to Lam Erin’s Cherishville to see what has been brought forth for the summer months of 2026. The result, I have to say, is something of a mixed bag: largely pleasing to the eye but also with a couple of minor niggles.
The overall design carries something of and echo of the summer 2025 iteration of the region design, which I covered at the time – and which itself carried hints of a frequent study for Second Life region designs: America’s Route 66. In this, the Summer 2026 design for Cherishville offers something of a return to the approach to the region Lam took to for some of his past designs: building variations of a core theme.
This is not a criticism of Lam’s work; such an approach gives the opportunity to offer a sense of both continuity and renewal; the idea that – as with the physical world – we are visiting a place which is gently changing over time. A place maturing in reflection of those living within it. It gives a sense of familiarity when visiting, with the promise of finding something new tucked away here and there.
Offering a coastal desert setting, the region is bounded on three sides by rugged, sandy hills which almost, but don’t quite work when looked at for too long; the more one stares at them the more they give the impression of a portion of Mars having plopped itself into Second Life. However, the main landscape tends to draw the eyes away from the hills, lessening the need to dwell on them too much.
The region is is cut through from south-to-north by a main road, one with a single branch road leading to the coast in a similar manner to the Summer 2025 design. However, the major difference between the two is that here the side road runs past the local gas station – called, appropriately enough, Blake Sea Gas – down to a coastal hamlet where the houses and shops facing the sands of a broad beach over which rough decks and boardwalks pass and a volleyball court has been marked out to await players.
Parked along the hamlet and out on the sands just off the road leading to it are motifs from the 2025 design: motorcycles sitting in the shade of palm trees and an old car street artists have painted up, a taco van waiting for customers…
To the northern end of the beach sits a delightful little eccentricity in the form of a beached submarine which might have once served – well, if not Jacques Cousteau, then perhaps Steve Zissou in his Life Aquatic – but which is now someone’s little home.
Further south and on the other side of the slim curtain of mesa-like rock separating the hamlet from the main road sits an old barn flanked by by old “nodding donkey” pumpjacks, their prime mover engines long silenced. Meanwhile, the main road is paralleled by a stretch of railway track with a pair of old steam trains sitting back-to-back in a push-me-pull-you arrangement. Whether or not they actually chuff along the track is a matter for visitors to decide / imagine.
Cars are certainly making their way along the main road, with some availing themselves of the local motel and burger bar; but again, where they are going or from whence they have come is up to the visitors exploring the setting to decide.
Throughout all of this are plenty of small touches helping to bring the setting to life. There are seagulls circling the local clock tower, a street market sits to one end of the end of the hamlet, a street artist’s stand is neatly tucked close to a bar for refreshments, then the cosy interior and exterior of the local café-bistro and – my personal favourite – a local dog demonstrating his thoughts about members of his species not being allowed on the beach.
The niggles I mentioned are small, but also of the kind that are hard to ignore once seen. The first is the way the region surrounds doesn’t smoothly meet the northern and southern ends of the region its, leaving somewhat jagged ends to the beach area. An attempt has been make to hide these edges from view at ground level via the use if prim boards using images of desert rocks and cacti. It works from a distance away or if shadows are disabled, but it does become painfully obvious when seen close-up. While not spoiling the overall impact of the setting, the boards are a little jarring once noticed.
Even so, Cherishville Summer 2026 offers plenty of opportunities for photograph and exploration, and so shouldn’t be missed.
SLurl Details
- Cherishville – Summer (Tuscan Hills, rated Moderate)
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 