Category: Exploring Second Life

Regency Buckingham – click any image for full size

Jacon Cortes recently invited me to visit a project on which he has been working on for the last several years, and which finally opened its doors to the public in late 2015: an exquisite reproduction of Buckingham Palace. Intrigued, I hopped over to take a look, and Jacon and KarenKate Sands were kind enough to join me.

“We call it Regency Buckingham,  Jacon, a period role-player known in-world as  Jacon Cortes de Béxar (the historians might note his surname being indicative of another of his interests) told me. “Altogether, it’s been three-and-a-half years in development. and we’re still  building project, and it is still a work in progress; we still have some rooms we are working on. But we have reproduced twelve of the staterooms, which people can tour.”

Regency Buckingham – The Grand Entry

Those more familiar with the modern-day Buckingham Palace might be a little surprised on their arrival. The familiar East Wing of the Palace, which stands before the Mall and is home to the famous Royal Balcony, is entirely absent; its place taken by Marble Arch. This isn’t an error in the design or imaginative thinking; rather it is the first indication that this is not Buckingham Palace as it is, but rather Buckingham Palace as it was, during its construction; hence the name Regency Buckingham.

The Palace was essentially built on the orders of King George IV, after his father had initially purchased the older Buckingham House for conversion into a private retreat for Queen Charlotte. Inheriting the house on his ascension to the throne in 1820, George IV originally envisioned expanding it into a comfortable home, only to have it grow into a design for a Palace, which John Nash designed along classical cour d’honneur lines, with Marble Arch serving as the triumphal entrance to courtyard.

Regency Buckingham – The King’s Gallery

This has been a labour of love for Jacon and co-builders Crotian and Twelfthnight Cortes de Béxar, and is also something of a visualisation of what the Palace might have been like, had George IV had lived to see it finished  (in fact, neither George IV nor is younger brother and successor, William IV lived to see the Palace completed).  “We’ve tried to stay true to the building,” Jacon informed me.

The result is a build which exhibits an incredible level of detail and attention to detail, Jacon, Twelfthnight and Crotian drawing on numerous sources, including the National Trust, the Royal Collection Trust and the Buckingham Palace pages of the Royal website, in order to ensure the build is as historically representative and accurate as possible. For example, in keeping with the Palace’s period of construction through the reigns of George IV and William IV, none of the works of art reproduced within it date from later than the end of the 1830s. In fact, many of the reproduced pieces are drawn from the collections of George III and George IV.

Regency Buckingham

On offer at the landing point at the Marble Arch, is an information note card written by Tiamat Windstorm which is a must read. Not only does it present the Palace in is historical context as shown by the build, it provides detailed notes on the 12 available staterooms which can be explored, and provides a tour map for finding your way around them.

In addition, many of the staterooms offer images of their physical world counterparts, while hovering your mouse over portraits and paintings will often provide a short description of their subjects. All of this adds immeasurably to the experience of exploring the Palace.

Regency Buckingham – The Bow Room

Whether viewed as a historical reproduction, potential educational destination, role-play environment or labour of love, Regency Buckingham makes for an excellent visit, and is genuinely a must see.

My thanks once again to Jacon and Karenkate for taking the time to chat with me during my visit, and for providing me with some insight into Antiquity Estate – a subject and place to which I will be returning in future Exploring articles!

SLurl Details

• Regency Buckingham (Rated: Moderate)

I first visited Alki, the music and scenic region designed by Zoidyn (Zoidyn Kytori) and Alana Onyett, far back in 2013, which is Second Life terms, is almost a lifetime ago. Back then, it was described as an “evolving project inspired by the Pacific Northwest”, so I was curious to know what might have changed in the intervening years.

The overall answer might at first appear to be “not a lot”: the landscape is still the same, there’s the same mix of venues, the paths are familiar, and so on. However, the region has changed in subtle ways – but that’s the point of evolution; things don’t happen overnight, they happen over time.

The high plateau dominating the north side of the island is still there, but the Z&A coffee-house, one of several music venues in the region, and the neighbouring art studio both occupy different buildings when compared to my original visit. These now sit to one side of a slightly redesigned plateau, complete with sidewalk, street lamps and a large paved area on which sits a model of the original coffee-house and art studio.

Getting up to the plateau is a case of either following the tree-lined path which curls its way between cliffs and trees up to the heights, or via a steeper climb up the wooden stairs clinging determinedly to the east side of the plateau’s cliff. Getting down, however, is an easier affair: just grab the zip line that will take you across the landscape below to the rugged hills to the south of the region.

Well, easier to a point – it’s still a bit of a scramble to get down to ground level again, but when you do, the rest of the region is yours to explore – and there is a lot of it, whether it’s the west-facing beach, looking out over the bay with plenty of snuggle spots and under the watchful gaze of the Dragonfly Inn, or around the lake eastwards, through the woodlands to the camp-site and an activity area offering sailing, Greedy, Greedy, a children’s playground and a water slide; or northwards around the lake, under the lee of the platea, and along the path to the open-air music venues.

To the east sits a small island, reached by pedalo, with a contemplative oriental garden for Tai Chi followed by tea, and with caves to be explored below. Northwards of this, rising on sturdy wooden legs from the water, is the Z&A Fun Factory, where an assortment of table games, arcade games and other distractions can be found, including an annoyingly addictive game of rock, paper, scissors!

When regions seem to come and go, sometimes with barely a blink between arrival and departure, it’s good to see places like Alki continuing over the years, offering a place both familiar and new to visit and re-visit and enjoy. Should you decide to hop over and take a look, do please consider a donation at the landing point to help ensure it remains a place to be shared in the coming months and years.

SLurl Details

• Alki (Rated: Moderate)

Rosemoor – click any image for full size

Rosemoor is the name of a collaborative region design by Arol Lightfoot and Krys Vita (who designed the popular Kaleidoscope I wrote about here). “This one was meant to be fun!” Krys told me as Caitlyn and I paid a visit a few hours after the region had opened its doors slightly ahead of schedule, “welcome to our zoo 😛 .”

Rosemoor presents visitors with a low-lying island of grass and sands, just a couple of craggy plateaus offering genuine elevation in the south-west corner. The “zoo” Krys mentioned as we chatted, sits to the north-west, close to the landing point. It takes the form of Everlag Park – a place which has clearly seen better days at some point. Now the paint is fading, dirty and chipped on the entrance, the sign having partially fallen from its place above the archway, while the buildings either side showing similar distress.

Rosemoor

Within the park, the carousel and big wheel stand broken and dejected, while the bumper cars look to have been the victims of a fire, while rides sit overgrown and forgotten in the grounds. Only the circus tent appears to be in reasonable condition, but even this fails to hold the attention for long, thanks to the animals standing and roaming the park – or as I put it to Krys, “tigers and zebras and giraffes, oh my!”

“Ha ha!” Krys replied, “the craziest thing is in the other corner 😉 Our little addiction found itself a home!”

Rosemoor

To the south and east, around and across the bay cutting into the island, the land is sandier and offers a couple of homes between which horses contentedly wander, grazing on the stubble of grass poking above the gently undulating dunes and hills of sand. Those which are roaming freely and saddled can be ridden by visitors.

And it was southwards and eastward that I was drawn, wondering what the addiction Krys mentioned might be.  It can actually be found on a little island just off the coast. I’m saying nothing else on this, as to write about it would spoil a visit for others 🙂 . All I will do is repeat Krys’ explanation for things: “D-Lab… the gacha got us! 😉 ”

Rosemoor – click any image for full size

With places to sit and to snuggle scattered around, particularly along the coastline, Rosemoor has a wonderfully coastal feel to it; somewhere perhaps not too far from civilisation, but far enough to offer a sense of isolation and being off the beaten track (hence why the Everlag Park may not have succeeded, despite the picturesque surroundings).

The default windlight suggests an early morning, but the region is ideal for photography under many different environment settings, as I hope the images here demonstrate. Very thoroughly recommended as a place to visit!

SLurl Details

• Rosemoor (Rated:  Moderate)

Playa Flamingo – click any image for full size

Playa Flamingo is a beautifully landscaped Homestead region designed by Marcus (Marcus68), which Caitlyn and I have dropped into a couple of times and been fascinated by its mix of picturesque landscaping and touches of whimsy.

Those familiar with the term “playa” might be expecting a desert-like environment, perhaps with a little water covering it; or maybe a beach-type location in keeping with the region’s physical world namesake in Costa Rica. Instead, what visitors find is a perfect island environment which packs an incredible about into it without ever once feeling crowded or overdone.

Playa Flamingo

Visitors arrive in a small business area on the westward side of the island, a comfortable gathering of business premises gathered along a cobbled road and around a fountain.  Bounded to the south by one of the broad bays cutting into the land, and to the west by the local beach, this offers two routes by which the rest of the island can be explored: north and east.

North takes you, by way of a large walled square, to the local railway line pointing the way eastwards. The first touch of whimsy is to be found here: a trio of Iakua Arriga’s little animals whiling away the time sitting at the side of the track. Follow the latter eastwards and it’ll take you past some old bungalows before turning inland and coming to an abrupt end above the shoreline of the island’s major inlet.

Playa Flamingo

A bridge spans the neck of the inlet to reach the east side, the headland there occupied by private property. However, the track beyond the bridge turns south, offering visitors the opportunity to wander down to a farm sitting on the south-eastern headland. This is overlooked by the Cyclopean eye of a lighthouse sitting on a rugged island  to the south, and reach by taking the eastward exit from the arrival point.

This route will take you, by way of a trailer park with just one occupant, down past the steps of  waterfalls tumbling from the rocky heart of the region, to the bank of the channel separating the islands, spanned by a bridge made from the trunks of two ancient trees, locked together as if shaking hands across the water.

Playa Flamingo

Here lies another touch of whimsy: large teacups sit on their saucers, floating on the misty water, offering visitors a place to sit and relax. Across the bridge, the steps up to the lighthouse take visitors past three tall turbines looking for all the world like giant children’s windmills, their sticks plunged into the ground. Just a little further around the curve of the channel, in the bay behind the landing point, sits a little gathering of rowing boats, some of which offer further places to sit and rest, huddled around an old fishing pier.

Playa Flamingo is another delight to explore and photograph, completed by a delicate ambient sound scape which further presents the region as a haven of tranquillity. Caught in a forever sunset, the region lends itself to almost any windlight setting you might happen to like, and it’s hard to find a camera angle which doesn’t lend itself to a snap or two. Should you enjoy your visit, please considered showing your appreciation by leaving a donation at the piggy bank by the landing point..

Playa Flamingo

SLurl Details

• Playa Flamingo (Rated: Moderate)

Honeycomb – click any image for full size

Lundy De Luca (Londinia Leistone) is a maker of mesh home and garden furnishings under the Hive brand. She also offers her store’s homestead region of Honeycomb as a place others are welcome to visit and explore, as indicated in a recent Destination Guide Highlights blog post from the Lab.

Honeycomb presents a rugged landscape, deeply cut by the sea into a series of headlands linked by a low, forked tongue of land, and two equally rugged islands. The store and landing point occupy the largest of the headlands, located in the north-west of the region, a dirt track dipping down from it, turning north-east at the fork of the tongue, to arrive at small farmstead where horses peacefully graze in a field of grass turned golden brown by the sun. Here sits an old garage with a makeshift wooden deck before it, looking out across one of the inlets towards the middle headland.

Honeycomb

Reached by crossing the local railway line, this middle headland offers a careworn beach on its west side, backed by a tired cabins built on or over its rocky eastern shore. A rickety looking bridge runs out from the beach to the smaller of the two islands, scarcely more than a table of rock rising from the sea, which is surrounded by a small skirt of sand and topped by a tall pier.

The railway line, which emerges from a tunnel beneath the Hive store, curls its way across two trestle bridges and the middle headland to arrive at the larger of the two islands, where it abruptly ends. Here sits another cabin on top of a rocky table, looking westwards towards the setting sun. A board walk and wooden steps offer a means to get down to the water’s edge on the east side of the island, passing under the railway. but to get to the gravelly, overgrown western shoreline of the island requires a bit of a scramble over rocks.

  Honeycomb

While it might sound tired and a little past its prime, the landscape of Honeycomb is nevertheless highly photogenic and evocative, and it is hard to avoid turning the camera slightly left or right and finding another view worthy of a photo. Gulls call from overhead, waves wash against the shores with soft hisses, while geese wander, horses and deer graze, and trawlers work just off the coast. From the tatty/chic beach through the connecting lowlands there are numerous places to sit and while away the time, with rowing boats out on the water offering a chance for a quiet cuddle with a loved one.

All in all, another great place to visit and, if you’re looking for something for your home or garden, or with which to further decorate you land, you might just find the answer in the Hive store!

Honeycomb

SLurl Details

• Honeycomb (Rated: Moderate)

Airship Pirates Town – click any image for full size

Jamisson Burnstein recently drew my attention to a store called Airships Pirates Town, located high over the island of Hakone, and the work of へき (hekirekika Jinn). “Airship Pirates” is actually enough to get a quizzical eyebrow rising, but the build itself really has to be seen to be believed.

The “airships” in this case are not what you might think: they are neither dirigibles, nor are they (well, for the most part!) great galleons sung beneath gigantic gasbags or held aloft by whirling propellers. Rather, they are regular sailing vessels  – a man of war and an armed Chinese junk – berthed against a stone quay, all of which just happen to be 3,500 metres in the air, with the quay attached to the most fantastical and delightful to the eye steampunk town which also extends outwards blow the great stone piers of the quay.

Airship Pirates Town

The landing point for this eye-catching build is a wooden dock, somewhat in need of repair, running out alongside the berthed Chinese junk. Wooden cranes sit idle alongside the dock while a zip line offers a rapid transfer down to the lower levels. However, it is likely to be the strange, piled-up charm of the town, reached by solid wooden stairs, will initially attract visitors on their arrival.

The town is an eclectic mix of buildings, some made of wood, others of brick, still others of wood-framed stone, all of random shapes and sometimes piled one on top of the other without regard – brick upon wood, for example. They are all clustered around one face of an enormous iron, steel and glass island from which huge chimneys and stacks rise and great pipes descend and around which little flying ships circle and even a great black locomotive chugs an endless circular journey from tunnel to wall.

Airship Pirates Town

Clinging to the sides of this strange place on platforms of wood or steel or brick stand huge, slowly turning wheels or creaking wooden windmills. Stairways and steps and ladders provide routes upwards, while individual buildings invite visitors inside. Most are shops, but some offer living and working space. Getting around can be confusing, so look out for the teleport hub at the top of the stone steps or for the TP signs scattered around and within the buildings. Climb high enough, and you’ll find another zip line waiting to carry you back down to the quay.

Nor are explorations restricted to the shops and various levels of the floating island: find the right teleport or the right entrance, and you can enter the heart of the iron island, where sit both  the great generator which presumably keeps the place hovering in the sky, and also an Indiana Jones style course involving switching, swinging bridges, and dodging cogwheels – although the end of this journey is a little abrupt.

Airship Pirates Town

With a dragon keeping an eye on things, and the odd genuine flying boat (emphasis on boat!) either moored higher up or circling the sky and a lot packed into what is a very small area, not to mention the phenomenal steampunk look, Airship Pirates Town is well worth a visit and explore, standing as a wonderful demonstration of the creative whimsy possible in this digital world.

SLurl Details

• Airship Pirates Town (Rated: General)