Category: Exploring Second Life

Paradise on Sea came to our attention via Shawn Shakespeare (who has perhaps the most unique talent for finding regions that are open to photographing / writing about). A Full region held by Bellita (Belle Onedin), it offers a home for her SL business, Heart Poses located on a sky platform high above the region, and a ground level that is open for visitors to explore and appreciate.

Set in summertime, the region offers a warming visit for those of us sitting in the northern hemisphere, where the weather seems to have decided to skip autumn entirely, and settled on scowling, rainy, winter-like days. Given this lean towards summer, Paradise on Sea is a bright, lush setting, full of greenery and with flowers – wild or potted – in full bloom to offer bright splashes of colour against the rich greens.

Although offering the “on Sea” in its title, the region has the appearance of being located within a landlocked lake, verdant hills cut by a single  serpentine river surrounding its three islands. The largest of these, forming the bulk of the region, is home to the landing point – which is not enforced (in fact the coordinates found in About Land’s Options tab are actually off, and will drop you into the waters of the region’s east side) – is located in an old stone ruin that offers a teleport disk up to the Heart Poses store.

The landing point sits at the feet of a tall, blunt-topped peak of rock that rises from a broad base that mixes grassy slopes with pools of clear water fed from numerous falls that tumble from multiple points in its sheer faces. It’s a distinctive rocky mass, vying with the huge form of a wooden windmill sitting on its own rocky upland to the south, and a nearby cedar of Lebanon for recognition as the tallest object on the island.

From the landing point, a cobbled path points both north and south – the former direction leading to the open fields that wash tall grass around the base of the windmill’s rocky foundation, while the latter direction winds its way to the north side of the region and the shallow cove of a beach.

Here wooden platforms rise in individual tiers from the narrow lip of grass between the beach the the walls of the high peak, ladders linking them to provide the means to scale the heights, passing water that drops to feed the beach-side pools that don’t reach the lake but instead offer places for birds and ducks to take a drink. Climb the ladders and platforms, and they’ll take you to a point just below the summit where a hot spring resides – or for the daring, a hang glider can be launched for an aerial view of the region and its surrounds.

The windmill is not the sole building within the region: four houses await discovery by explorers, with three of distinctly Tuscan design, suggesting the region might be somewhere inland in central / northern Italy. Two of these are to be found on the smaller islands that lie to the north-west and on the east side of the main land mass. Both are furnished and offer much to see both indoors and in the grounds around them The third and largest a villa occupies a south-west headland that is just a jumble of rocks away from becoming separated from the rest of the landscape as it dominates the flat sandstone slab of rock on which it sits. Again furnished, and with an inviting courtyard within its walls, it calls to visitors to come and explore it.

A surfaced, single-tracked road curls outward from this villa’s humped bridge. Passing around the shoulder of the windmill’s table of rock, the road ends close by a gabled cottage with an air of rural France about, it neatly juxtaposed by the very British presence of an old red telephone booth facing it over a parked car. Sitting within its own gardens and grounds, this cottage lies just above the waters of the lake and shares its location with a charming little painter’s studio and a small houseboat linked to the land by a wooden pier and deck to offer something of a floating summer house.

This is a region packed throughout with detail and many, many opportunities to sit and relax as well as for taking photographs. As noted, all of the houses are furnished – as is the windmill, while the outdoor sitting spots can be found in their grounds or gardens, along the beach, up on the tall peak and elsewhere. Cars (roadworthy and not) add a further sense of human life to the setting, whilst the birds overhead and the horses in fields and close to houses add their mix of life and presence to the setting.

With so much going on within a region that uses the private region land capacity bonus, there is a lot for the eye – and the viewer – to take in, and it would be remiss of me not to note the fact that the volume of mesh and textures can take its toll on older systems, and disabling shadows for those that use them might be advisable when moving around. Nevertheless, Paradise on Sea is a rewarding and engaging visit, and photos taken within the region can be submitted to its associated Flickr stream.

SLurl Details

• Paradise on Sea (EDGE paradise, rated Moderate)

We received an invitation from Dya OHare to visit the latest iteration of her region builds, “We’re not so far from the Caribbean,” she said, referencing her last design I covered in these pages (see Dya’s Scent of the Caribbean in Second Life). “I’ve tried to show a bit of the Southern Life and I hope you like it.”

So off we hopped to see Dya’s Southern Twilight, a place that presents a rich mix of southern American life in the form of aspects of New Orleans together with sights that might be found in Mississippi and Louisiana. This sounds a lot to cover in a single region, but Dya does a good job of mixing multiple aspects of these states and the Crescent City, with touches that suggest the era of the 1930s-1940s – although it could just as easily be a modern setting.

The region is diagonally split by a river running from the north-east to the south-west, representative of the Mississippi itself. The landing point sides on the north bank of the river, on a road that serves a built-up area suggesting the older parts of New Orleans. Here can be found multiple places of business, side streets with cobbled surfaces and tram tracks, a place where street urchins play (or perhaps whisper plans to hop a tram whilst avoiding the fare), and an open air café awaits patrons.

Also to be found on this side of the river is a touch of the city’s French Quarter. This takes the form of a street overlooked by wrought iron guarded balconies draped with flags, with more fluttering from short poles leaning out from the railing tops. Lights strung across the street help illuminate it, together with the signs for the local bar and the hotel, whilst the end of the street is awash in colours that splashes over aged whitewashed walls from two tall street lamps.

This built-up area is bracketed by sights often associated with New Orleans in film and television: a paddle steamer moored on the river, and a cemetery complete with family mausoleums. For the romantics, one of the Crescent City’s white horse-drawn carriages sits at the roadside as well.

The south side of the river has a small harbour area that connects it to the north side with the assistance of a girder bridge of the kind seen along to Mississippi, but also opens out to contain a suggestion of the bayou, complete with trees rising from misty waters, with cabins potted in the open spaces.

Separated from the bayou by shrubs and dense foliage sits one of the grand old plantation houses associated with the southern states. Set back from the riverside road, it rises from the end of a long footpath, the front door open to invite visitors into the partially furnished interior. Horses graze in the field alongside the the house, whilst a tall hedge guards a small, neat garden to the rear, which also has access to a local beach.

Rich in detail with plenty to discover, appreciate and photograph, Dya’s Southern Twilight continues Dya’s tradition in creating engaging locations for people to visit.

Our thanks also to Shawn Shakespeare for the LM.

SLurl Details

• Dya’s Southern Twilight (Phantos, rated Moderate)

 

Open for the Autumn period (or spring, for those living in southern latitudes) is Where Our Journey Begins (I’m assuming the “begings” apparent in the name at the time of our visit is a typo), a Homestead region  designed by Vivian Ewing and Dream Shadowcry.

Offered as a place to relax and take photographs (which can be shared through the region’s Flickr group), it’s a setting that appears to be caught in a forever sunset, quite the romantic time of day (although admittedly, I opted to run my own daylight settings while visiting), and which is visually impressive both in its layout and for one or two ideas it might give to those who like to fiddle with their own homes.

Where Our Journey Begins sits with a north-south orientation as a horseshoe shaped island, the open end of which looks westward towards the lowering Sun. Cupped within the arms of this horseshoe is a deep inlet, no doubt cut by the waters falling from the high curtain of rock that forms a major part of the island’s eastern aspect, the falls within it sitting as a series of high steps down which the waters tumble to reach the curved bay.

The open end of this bay is spanned by a broad stone bridge that connects the north and south aspects of the island and provides visitors with a landing point. Whatever traffic this bridge once witnessed has now largely passed: its stone surface is now the home of long grass and even young trees have gained a foothold at either end of it’s span. As well as being the landing point, this bridge offers a place to sit and the first opportunities to take photographs within the region as it is subject to the periodic sweeping gaze of the off-shore (but still within the boundary of the region) lighthouse.

The northern and southern arms of the island offer places to visit and appreciate. To the north, the bridge leads visitors to where a flat-topped table of rock thrusts out from the much higher curtain of waterfalls. A path curls up the side of this table, the easiest way to reach the top. As it does so, it passes the flat toes of the cliffs, a place of long grass shaded by autumn-shaded willows and green fir trees and is the home of a old carousel and its ticket booth and pipe organ.

The top of the table presents a summer house set within its own grounds (but open to the public) and with plenty of detail within and without – I admit to particularly liking the manner in which a glass-walled pavilion has been converted into a cosy outdoor bathroom warmed by its own wood-burning stove.

Stone steps guarded by old concrete gate posts point the way down from the terrace behind the summer house to a broad lip of rock that offers a secluded hideaway and place to sit. A second path just to the right of the one that rises up the the plateau, slopes gently down to where a small meadow sits under the arms of two huge oak trees and sheltered by a rich growth of the bushes, the home to a wooden gazebo warmed by a stone-built fireplace.

The southern end of the island presents a further table of grass-topped rock, this one lower than the one to the north. It is home to what may have once been farm outbuildings – a windmill and a couple of barns. However, while one of the barns still provides shelter for sheep, this area now looks to be more of a garden space; the second barn has been converted into another little summer house / music room, three of its walls now fitted with windows, the space between it and the other barn fenced as a little wild garden.

From this southern spur, it is possible to walk down to the island’s shoreline and the shingle beaches that border three sides of it. Two of these beaches offer further places to sit – an open deck to the south, and a little beach house with canvas sides and roof and extended deck to the west. Looking towards the lighthouse, this beach house is fronted by an old pier, matched by one at the foot of the lighthouse, both of them suggest a route between island and lighthouse, although sadly, there is no rowing bone to traverse it. However, you can cam-sit yourself onto the boat tied-up at the lighthouse pier – a method that also lets you avoid the disapproval of the seagulls who have laid claim to both of the old piers!

I’m not sure how long Where Our Journey Begins will remain open to the public. As noted, it’s About Land details indicate it is available for public visits for the “Fall season”, so I presume that as it has apparently only opened recently, it’ll remain available to the public until at least mid-to-late October – but don’t quote me on that!

Overall, the region makes for a photogenic and engaging visit, although some adjustment to viewer settings might be required to get the best FPS when wandering (I had to switch to a lower draw distance to keep my FPS at least in the teens). It’s a setting that is well put together and offers a lot to discover and appreciate.

SLurl Details

• Where Our Journey Begins (Santa Iria, rated Moderate)

Lotus Mastroianni and Fred Hamilton (frecoi) are back with another region design that will likely be around for a month(ish) for people to enjoy. Their most recent builds have tended to have an urban design rooted in the physical world, starting with their take on a Brazilian favela back in May of 2020 (see:  Visiting A Favela in Second Life), and this latest design continues this theme, appearing to be inspired by a part of a place that lies very close to my heart.

With A Thousand Windows, Fred and Lotus seems to take as their inspiration the tight-knit tenement blocks located in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong’s Kowloon peninsula. Mong Kok is a place I’ve visited on numerous occasions in my life (notably as a result of once living in Hong Kong many, many, years ago). I say this because, while there is no outright pointer to Mong Kok within the build, parts of it appear to pay clear homage to the district.

Take the 737 airliner passing overhead, for example; to me, it sits as a reminder that the district once lay beneath one of the approaches airliners had to make in order to touch-down at Hong Kong’s former airport at Kai Tak, a short distance away.  An approach that had aircraft practically scraping the roofs of the tenements, as made famous in many a photograph.

Elsewhere, in fairness, the region could have been inspired by any number of densely-packed housing units in the orient, but for me, Mong Kok is the place it brings to mind, even if Kai Tak did cease operations more than 20 years ago, having been replaced by a much larger, purpose-built facility built (much like Kai Tak) on reclaimed land, but out at Chek Lap Kok island, sitting off the north coast of Lantau. However, the focus of the build isn’t airlines or airports, but rather the densely-packed nature of the old tenements and the lives that go on within them.

There is a huge world out there, but what happens behind all those windows? what lives and worlds are hiding there? How many eyes peer into the fleeting reflections of so many lights?

– About Land, A Thousand Windows

This is actually a question I can remember asking myself, both as a youngster living in Kong Kong, and as an adult tourist who has made many return visits. With their shoebox sized (by western standards) living spaces, stacked one atop the next in grey, slab-like concrete towers cut through with narrow roads and alleys set back from the broader through routes of places like Yua Ma Tei occupying the main thrust of the Kowloon peninsula, parts of Mong Kok always struck me with a sense of mystery as to what was going on behind the blinds-shouded windows and narrow verandahs strung with laundry that so often formed the face of the squat tor blocks as they looks at the world.

All this is marvellously captured with Lotus and Fred’s design, which has been ideally set within a twilight environment to emphasise the volume of windows representative of people packed into so tight a space.

Set within four façades representative of five floors of apartment blocks, the region presents a number of tower blocks of similar height with narrow streets and alleys running between them. Neon signs hang from the sides of buildings and laundry hangs from verandahs – again a common sight I remember from Mong Kok. Most of the buildings within the setting are shells, although one or two contain interiors, making exploration worthwhile.

As well as the narrow streets sitting within their concrete canyons, the region offers elevated walkways from which the view can be appreciated, as well as offering the way to some outdoor spaces. And if you look hard enough, you might find an elevator leading up to the rooftops of one gathering of blocks, a couple of seats located just a across the roof from the elevator top from which to admire the view of the 737 passing overhead – and the visitors passing below.

Opportunities for photography, either by day or night, can be found throughout – as can be seen in the Flickr stream Lotus and Fred use for their builds. I admit to finding the sound scape accompanying the build a little odd – particularly the loud buzzing of flies (although that could perhaps be hornets of wasps, both of which could be a summertime nuisance in Hong Kong when I was little) but this can easily be ignored, leaving one to remain fully immersed in the setting.

All told, another enticing, attractive build. And just in case you haven’t seen photos of airliners over the actual Mong Kok district, I’ll leave you with the following.

SLurl Details

• A Thousand Windows (You and Me, rated Adult)

In February 2020, we visited The Muse, a Homestead region designed by the superbly named “United Nerds of Building” (see: Finding The Muse in Second Life). Earlier this month, I received a note from Liss Beattie, that The Muse’s owner, Tribish Tammas, has both relocated and redesigned The Muse, so we took the opportunity to hop over and take a look.

Still occupying a Homestead region, The Muse retains some elements from the design we saw back in February, whilst also offering an entirely new look. As with the previous design, The Muse remains split between a core ground-level build and a sky platform, with the stated aim of the region being to offer a “space for couples, lovers, and friends to relax and spend time together”.

The main landing point is located in the the ground-level setting, on the south side of the region. Backed by a flat-topped bluff with grassy slopes to its seaward side, the landing point sits within the ruins of an ancient building – perhaps an aged temple – with a westward view towards the surrounding mountains. These sit beyond a small island that appears to have been formed by the local water cutting a channel to separate what had once been a headland.

Reached via a stone bridge that arches between two weather-beaten and somewhat decrepit gates, this little island is home to one of the elements seen within the previous design: an open-air Elven Ballroom.

The bluff behind the landing point runs east and then north, forming a low-lying table of land, its landward faces formed by rocky cliffs over which a waterfall tumbles to feed a stream that winds its way across the region. In doing so, it neatly cuts the lowlands into two unequal parts. On one of these sits a single barn, converted to an adult play area, surrounded by a sea of flowers. On the other, close to the rocky plateau, is a more expansive ruin that sits close to a place that winds up to the top of plateau.

Two bridges span the stream,providing easy passage between the two parts of the lowlands, while a third bridge reaches across a further channel of water to reach a north-eastern island.

The north-eastern island has a backbone of cliffs against which the intriguing bulk of The Retreat from The Looking Glass sit.. In the last iteration of The Muse we visited, this formed a mystical library. Now it fulfils more of the role of being a home, its westward aspect commanding a view across the region’s lowlands, ruins, barn and Elven Ballroom all visible among the trees sprinkled across the landscape. Also visible from this vantage point is a large garden bar sitting at the north end of the main island, a comfortable walk from both this house and the barn.

The sky platform is reached via teleport from the landing point (you’ll need to accept the region’s experience when asked). As  per the previous iteration of the design, it offers a large dance floor with and animated finish and now bracketed by a pair of floating islands  – one the teleport point, the other offering space for Tai chi exercise. It is watched over by a blue whale that swims through the air above it, and the eye of a large moon that slowly orbits the dance floor along with the stars and nebula of skybox surrounding the platform.

Throughout both settings, ground and sky, are numerous opportunities for dancing and / or sitting and relaxing, whilst on the ground, the islands are nicely rounded-off by a natural sound-scape.

One of the charms of The Muse when we last visited was the manner in which it comprised a series of individual vignettes loosely woven together by the setting in which they sat, rather than presenting a truly contiguous whole. It was both eclectic and yet complete, the various areas offering their own individuality but nevertheless flowing together as a whole.

This new iteration presents farm more a feeling of being a contiguous whole at ground level, a single environments with multiple points of interest. On the one hand, this means the current Muse perhaps lacks the eclectic mix of the old, but on the other, it means it offers its own unique look and feel – that of a temperate island that has seen the passage of time and human habitation, and is now a retreat from the pains and pressures of the world, ready to greet and comfort all who visit it.

SLurl Details

• The Muse (Consensual Kinks, rated Adult)