Category: Second Life

Light in white satin, frosted trees on the hill
Cakes for the eating, ’til you’ve had your own fill.
Beauty in gentle mist with soft whimsy before
Fun for its own sake is here to adore.

OK, so that’s not precisely what Justin Hayward wrote at the tender age of 19 whilst penning Nights in White Satin (which coincidentally reached No. 19 in the UK charts when first release as a single in 1967), but given the title of the region design I’m featuring here and its nature, can you really blame me?

Lights in White Satin is the work of ChimKami and Leica Arado as a whimsical winter setting that is intended to be enjoyed for its light-heartedness and sense of joy. Folding within it charm, memories of childhood, holidays in the sunshine and on beaches lapped with surf and crisp winter’s nights when the snow crunches underfoot and the silver crescent of the Moon hangs amongst scattered jewels of stars.

This is a place where logic and detailed descriptions can, frankly, be thrown out the window – it is whimsy and delight should be experience first-hand. From Chocolate tumbling down the sides of tall peaks and turning some of the satiny snow brown, through trees growing like Magnum® ice cream, and paths formed by icing-tops biscuits and chocolate blocks broken from some giant’s bar, this homestead region offers vignettes and settings where time might be spent.

The latter are spread all around the region, far enough apart to offer a little privacy where seating is available. The seating comes in a wide variety of forms, from chairs cut from pieces of fruit to those of a more regular variety. Some are watched over by Disney-esque characters, others are home to unicorns or penguins, elephants or deer; but this alone is an insufficient description.

This is a place where lollipops and gum crops form the trees alongside ice creams and ice cream cones, wish fish and sea creatures swim underwater and under dome; where lanterns float and mushroom drip icing like stalactites, ladders climb trees and little worlds and puffs of little clouds hover in the sky, possibly ignoring all that passes below.

To put it another way and partially repeat myself, this is a place to put away grown-up thoughts and let your inner child free and simply enjoy the whimsy, the contradictions, the little wonders. Of course, if you want, you can hop around via the teleport near the Landing Point and thus find the horses waiting to be ridden or the little RHIB waiting for you to putter (or zip) around the island or the rowing bow moored for you to relax upon – but where’s the fun in that? Better to roam and find.

Also waiting to be found are a host of references similar to the touches of Disney mentioned above. From a certain ogre and his sidekick to Hergé’s heroes  or broomsticks hinting at games of Quidditch, all might be found here, together with opportunities for ice-skating, dancing  and those simple opportunities to relax and have fun.

As already noted, Lights in White Satin isn’t a place to be written about – it is a place to visited, explored and experienced – be sure to mouse-over things carefully or you might miss a few smile-raising things. So instead, rather than banging on about it here, I’ll just invite you to pay a visit. And, before closing, express my thanks to Sam Rougefeu for his blog post that led me to visit.

SLurl Details

• Lights in White Satin (Dreamworld Mermaid, rated Moderate)

In September 2024, I visited La Côte Sauvage (The Wild Coast), a natural location held and designed by Second Life artist-photographer Caly Applewhyte (Calypso Applewhyte). Taking its inspiration from the Breton Coast, France, it was at that time located within half of a Homestead region.

And while people might say a year is a long time in politics, just a matter of a couple of months or so can be an age in Second Life! Because that’s all it has taken for La Côte Sauvage to change location and expand, offering a setting both familiar and new to explore.

Whilst still occupying one half of a region, the region in question is now a Full region held by Caly, with La Côte Sauvage running north-to-south along its western half, the Landing Point sitting roughly between the northern and southern extremes. I’m not sure when the move was made, but at the time of my visit, it did appear as if one or two things were still in the process of being placed / awaiting placement, with the little puppy happy in his sleep from the previous iteration still resting, but at the time I dropped in, floating serenely above and behind one of the setting’s little cabins, together with floating hovering overhead not too far away. 

The cabin in question is one half of the Trompe Loeil Yara Treehouse, as carried forward from the previous build, with its remaining half (also sans supporting trees) has been transplanted to the southern end of the landscape. They are not alone in being carried over, as those who visited La Côte Sauvage in its “old” home will realise as they wander; there is much here that is familiar – and rightly so – within the expanded landscape. But this is not to say the setting is the same; there is also much that is new. 

Take, for example, the  the henge-like standing stones and the ruined chapel on the headland beyond them; both echo the presence of the ruins that occupied the former Côte Sauvage, complete with the henge stones speaking to an ancient past; but the manner in which henge and chapel ruins speak of age is very different to the ruins which had resided in the former build. Similarly, while the Romanesque pavilion and its refreshments appears here, it now sits within a more shelter location, complete with a new view over the land as it sits at the edge of the setting’s rich woodland.

These woods occupy most of the eastern side of the land, set back and above stream and sandy coast as if ready to rebuff any harsh winds that might otherwise seek to make their way inland; and the winds and the sea here can indeed be hard and cruel, as evidence by the wreck of a ship driven on to rocks to the north. However, shelter from the harshness of the sea is offered by a headland, an island and a causeway of rock, all of which conspire to guard an inlet cutting into the land before the Landing Point. It is here that a stream bursts froth from rocks below the treeline  and bubbles and rushes the short distance to the waters of the inlet, passing under one of several bridges aiding walkers in their explorations as it does so.

It is within the trees that a meandering path might be found, offering another route of exploration running roughly north-to-south. It can be reached from several points, although probably the easiest is to take the steps winding up between the rocks at the north end of the setting, close to the cabin there, or by climbing the stone steps to the Romanesque pavilion and then making your way through the trees until you reach it.

This path actually straddles the parcel boundary between the two halves of the region, the woodlands doing to as well. This given the impression that the two halves of the region might be somewhat contiguous – although the different EEP settings used in each also belies this. I frankly have no idea if the two halves, even if thematically different, are supposed to run together and be open to all who visit; at the time of my visit, the east side was very much under development, so I kept my nose out as far as possible so as not to interfere.

Several places to sit can be found along the woodland trail, together with a mystical altar. Quite what rituals the latter might be for, I have no idea, but its presence added a shade of misty to the woods.

In terms of mystery, the altar might be matched by the mysterious building on the island protecting the inlet mentioned earlier. Built into the island’s peak and at first resembling an old bunker, it is in fact the entrance to Caly’s gallery space: take the teleporter inside to reach it. Built around a central lobby, the gallery offers four halls in which past exhibitions presented by Caly across Second Life continue to be celebrated. Just click the tree stump to return to ground level, either at the bunker or the landing point.

As with its former location and design, La Côte Sauvage remains a very visual and engaging place to explore and visit, so if you missed it the first time around, now’s your opportunity to catch up! 

SLurl Details

• La Côte Sauvage (Arvor, rated Moderate)