Category: Exploring Second Life

Maison de L’amitie (home/house/companion of friendship) is a Homestead region held by Corina Wonder I’ve been prone to dropping into on an irregular basis over the last several years. Throughout most of those visits, the region’s design has been the work of Corina herself, and has always presented photogenic setting, sometimes inspired by physical world locations (such as her 20219 recreation Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, which I covered here).

However, in dropping in to it at the start of March 2025, I was interested to note that while Corina still holds the region, the setting it presented is the work of LuaneMeo (holder and co-creator of Luane’s World, an oft-featured setting in these pages) and her frequent region design partner, Gorba McMahon. However, given the time since my last visit, I’m not sure if this is a new arrangement or one that has been going on for a while; not that it i important – the region remains as engaging as it every has been.

With spring starting to make its presence felt in many parts of the northern hemisphere, Maison de L’amitie presents a setting in keeping with the season – and one potential suitable for summer as well. The landscape is split into three: a large, main island and two smaller off-shoots looking as if they might have once been connected to one another and the main island, but which now sit just of the coast, low grassy / sandy humps just peeping above the waves enough to entice people to visit.

And visit they can; along the beach of the southern coast of the main island are a couple of wooden decks extending out over the blue waters (one so low in fact that it looks like its might be considering going for a swim!).

The larger of the two decks offers a little wooden boat with outboard motor to putter across the bay to either of the little islands, whilst the smaller of the two has an inflatable boat rezzer disguised as a life ring. Copies of the latter can be found on both of the smaller islands, thus allowing visitors to make their way back to the larger after explorations of the little isles has left them sans their original transport.

These two smaller islands are very individual in their looks. One is little more than a sandbar valiantly fighting the erosion of time and tide as they slowly but inevitably lays claim to its sands. An old adobe walled shack sits on the back of the island, now converted into a surfing shack and carrying various nautical-theme decorations within itself, a surfboard / paddle board propped again an outside wall together with a couple of paddles – the latter presumably waiting for someone to grab one of them and use with the board, the waters perhaps being far too peaceful for any actual surfing.

The second of these smaller islands is a little more substantial, a good portion of it formed by a grassy-haired table of flat rock sitting with an crescent of sand around one side. Trees have gathered around the remnants of a building here which, from the main island, might have the appearance of an old chapel long ago fallen into disuse and collapse. Within its shell someone  has built a little lean-to as a shelter and both it and the chapel-like window opening high on the wall offer places to sit.

The main island sits much higher above the water and is almost completely hemmed by a ribbon of beach running around its edge, the sands flattening and flaring out at the island’s southern extent to form a beachy promontory, its southern tip curling slightly towards the sandbar and  its shack, as if trying to reconnect to them.

It’s fairly clear from the compressed and sedimented layers of the exposed sandstone behind the southern arc of the beach, that this island has faced its share of inclement weather down the years sufficient enough to leave its mark in the exposed rock. However, this has not prevented the island becoming an attractive home and place for tourists to appreciate; the gentle rise and curl of its grass-covered back is home to a rich variety of trees and, around them, the vibrant colours of flowers in full bloom. This flowers seem to ebb and flow across the island’s middle saddle as it separates a large and beflowered stone house on the western uplands from the Tuscan-style villa to the east, the latter perfectly sited to look out over the beach’s broad headland.

The villa forms both the region’s Landing Point and a little café with both an outdoor terrace and upper balcony / rooftop seating area. The house across the island, meanwhile, offers a cosy, furnished retreat in which friendly conversation can be had in the conservatory or a game of backgammon enjoyed in the lounge, while upstairs a photographer’s studio awaits the return of its owner.

It is on the main island that the rich detail – evident throughout the setting – really comes into its own, Luane and Gorba having worked hard to imbue the island with a rich sense of life with details large and small. Signs of human habitation can be found all around the beach, as well as at the house and café (and the latter’s nearby neighbour); there are multiple places to sit and pass the time from deck chairs under parasols to lounger behind windbreaks to a touch of Californian surfin’ sixties, courtesy of an old VW camper offering a little beach-top surf retreat with a waiting picnic (and not the only picnic spot awaiting discovery at that!). Further around the sands to the north sits a tuk-tuk van both continuing the surf theme and offering a cosy retreat of its own.

Up on the island’s back, meanwhile, sheep peacefully graze, birds sing and pose on boughs as if awaiting their close-ups, butterflies add their own splashes of colour among the flowers, while swings, hammocks and canopied loungers offer places to set and contemplate the view and the setting. Overhead, an eagle circles on the updraughts created by the passage of wind up and over the island’s spine, aloof from the cawing and crying of the gulls over and on the beach.

Visually appealing, rich in colour, details and ambient sounds, Maison de L’amitie remains a thoroughly engaging visit.

SLurl Details

• Maison de L’amitie (Dekade, rated Moderate)

It was off back to Lam Erin’s Cherishville for me (in between growling at the PC, which decided to start playing up on me), to see what had come forth for the coming of spring.

The work of Lam and his SL partner, Azaria (AmariahRenee), the setting once again contains some echoes from past setting there, helping to give that sense of continuity, whilst also presenting something entire new and – as usual – photogenic.

That sense of familiarity is felt immediately on arrival:  once again, the Landing Point for the setting sits at one end of a road running before a row of houses, a road which form a T-junction at the one end and which turns sharply right at the other; only this street is cobbled, rather than paved, giving it something of a rural feel, something further trees and flowers facing the houses.

A further hint that this iteration of the region represents an earlier time that what has come before can be found in the saloon car parked at the end of the street, just before the road makes its right turn to the south.

Behind the row of houses sits a large lake, which takes up the middle are of the region. Rather than gardens or yards, the houses share a common terrace reaching out to the water, complete with docks for rowing boats and kayaks.

Whilst plentiful in number, these water craft appear to be for décor and sitting rather than taking out on the lake – which is fortunate, as the waters are the home to swans, with some of them nesting (together with ducks to one side of the lake).

Aside form the road passing around the lake on its west side, much of the land surround the lake continues the rural, almost pastoral theme; sheep graze, trees and flower bloom, streams and brooks bubble.

Winding through a good part of the scene, the road provides access to houses and cottages on the southern side of the lake, which they can look across from a slightly elevated position, one of them offered s a farmhouse with pigs, goats and chicken.

There’s no indication as to where in the world this iteration of Cherishville might be – not that this is important – but the large semi-fortified house on the east side of the region and again overlooking the lake did, for whatever reason, suggest Scotland to me – possibly helped by the off-region mountainous surrounds. This large house is a new(ish) release from Marcthur Goosson, and appears to combine elements of some of his previous designs (notably the MA MAISON Medieval Cottage and the Castle Gate Tower BARREZ, medieval style building) to present a large and engaging structure.

Whilst the fortified house is unfurnished, most of the rest are complete with furniture and décor, offering opportunities to peek inside them and perhaps take a seat as an alternative to the seats, boats and benches found outside.

Cherishville always tends to be be attractive – if with the occasion niggle with floating elements – but this iteration has the feeling of going beyond in the way the palette of colours from sky to scenery to buildings has be brought together as a whole. In this the use of PBR helps as well, the materials providing a sense of added depth to things like the exposed rock alongside the shoreline of the lake.

The simplicity of the setting, coupled with its natural beauty means that detailed descriptions really are not required; the region speaks clearly for itself.  With this in mind, I’m going to shut up here and encourage you to go see for yourself!

SLURL Details

• Cherishville – Spring (Tuscan Hills, rated Moderate)

I recently received an invitation from Nero (NeroRhea Supermarine) to visit her new public setting in Second Life – her first such undertaking offered to everyone to visit and appreciate – entitled OBSIDIA.

Set within roughly a quarter of a Full region leveraging the Land Capacity bonus, OBSIDIA presents an engaging and enigmatic location, which is both highly personal to Nero both in terms of being her first public setting design and the fact that – as she notes herself – she has tended to keep her Second Life to a small circle of friends; thus, presenting her creative intent to an audience across Second Life and beyond the art circles in which she has operated is a daunting exposure.

After more than 17 years, I finally feel the desire to share something with the rest of the world. OBSIDIA is the latest of my visions brought to life in Second Life, a space open to anyone who wishes to experience it. It’s a remote and enigmatic place, suspended between the present and the unknown, somewhere between tranquillity and unease, where reality seems to dissolve. It may feel like an escape from everything, yet there is always a lingering sense that something more awaits, something yet to be discovered. Take your time to explore and enjoy its different areas, designed for private relaxation, contemplation, or intimacy.

– NeroRhea Supermarine

I was immediately drawn to Nero’s description on reading it’s a remote and enigmatic place, suspended between the present and the unknown because I’ve always felt there is something romantic and compelling about visiting a place that might be referred to as being caught somewhere between now and when; so I knew I’d have to hop along and explore – and the region does not disappoint.

Presented using both PBR materials and Blinn-Phong (“legacy”) “fallback” textures / materials (I would recommend using a viewer supporting the former when visiting), OBSIDIA is both marvellously Earth-bound (the dark rocks mindful of a long-cooled volcanic outflow of the kind that might be seen in places like Iceland and Hawaii), whilst the EEP setting overhead combines with the landscape given the setting an otherworldly feel, a place where meteorite streak downwards as a gigantic version of our own Moon dominates the sky.

The Landing Point sits well back to one side of the parcel, not quite tucked under one of the two tall, slender ribbons of rock which separate the parcel from he rest of the region in which it sits. From here, before the entrance to a large structure housing a photographic studio and art gallery (of which more in a moment), arriving visitors are given a commanding view out over the setting and across the open sea bounding the parcel’s two remaining sides. The sound of surf pushing and booming against the rocky shoreline throbs through the air, a dominating presence alongside that of the huge Moon.

Across the desolate landscape directly in front of the Landing Point, a squared shoulder of rock sits between the sea and the familiar forms of three large shipping containers. These and the old water tower just beyond them, seem to help to further anchor the setting as being here on Earth; but then, rising beyond them, and standing somewhat silhouetted against the star-spangled sky, there rises the most curious of lighthouses which beckons the feet to come visit.

Approaching the lighthouse reveals that in order to reach it, it is necessary to climb that shoulder of rock and then cross a bridge. In doing so, this reveals the lighthouse is something of a steampunk / dieselpunk build, the structure partially embedded  in the cinder cone of an extinct volcano, a large engine under it holding it aloft and in place as it turns massive pusher blades. The lighthouse tower itself cannot be accessed, but the drum-like machine room connected to it can be, and a stairway winding up its flank provides access to the flat roof, where places to sit might be found. In a nice touch, the structure sits within its own parcel so that local chat conversations are confined within it.

The same is true from another coastal structure on the north side of the parcel. Taking the form of an elevated, glass-walled house, it offer another quiet retreat within its own parcel, complete with seating both within and underneath it. Between this and the gallery building at the landing point, sits a giant broken cat head. Whether it once stood here alone and complete or was once part of a larger statue is yours to decide; it appears someone is making an attempt to repair it, a scaffold having been wrapped around it, Whilst inside another seating area can be found. This head further reveals the feline element to the setting – cats very much having laid claim to it throughout

The gallery building is home to Nero’s art, at and the time of my visit was displaying Broken, an engaging series of six 3D nude pieces arranged in pairs across the floor of the gallery. These are engaging pieces in their presentation, the figures apparently suspended in Perspex (or glass, given its shattered appearance). No liner notes are  provided, leaving the individual pieces and the collection as a whole open to our interpretation.

With space found across the landscape, indoors and out (including the shipping containers), cats keeping an eye on everything, the sense of individuality within the setting gives it depth and a sense of warmth, whilst encouraging exploration. My thanks to Nero for the invitation!

SLurl Details

• OBSIDIA (Midnight Garden rated Adult)

In July 2023, JimGarand presented a version of his Grauland Homestead region re-titled as Grauvik, a distinctly Scandinavian setting representing a fictional island off the coast of Iceland (see: A touch of Iceland in Second Life).

For early 2025, he now presents a further take on Grauvik in the form of Grauvik 2. It’s a design which retains the rocky, somewhat volcanic look and feel of 2023’s edition, suggesting it still be fictionally located close to Iceland, but which has touches suggestive that it could just as easily be off somewhere like the Norwegian coast. I’ll also note here that Jim has utilised PBR materials in the design and no BP fallbacks, so you’ll need a PBR-capable viewer to appreciate it.

This iteration brings an entirely new design to the island, with the 3D art pieces seen in 2023’s Grauvik entirely absent – which is not to say a 3D artistic presence is entire absent the island, a point I’ll come back to. Instead the island now carrying with it the suggestion of a private retreat; one served by a small dockside area to the north-east. It forms the setting’s Landing Point, and is capable of servicing floatplanes as well as small boats – a de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver of the Grauland Flying Service sits above the slipway.

These docks have been built into the one natural cove on the island, the rocks and slopes around and behind it suggestive that it might sit sheltered from the worst of any bad weather that might sweep over the island. Which is not to say it is the only low-laying point on the island; while the core of the setting sits upon rugged plateau of what might be granite or basaltic rock, there are flatlands around the coast – particularly to the north-west – and cinder beaches suggestive of volcanic sand cling to the coastline sufficiently well enough to allow visitors to completely circumnavigate the island on foot, almost never leaving the sands.

Beside the docks with their large hanger for maintaining visiting aircraft (and perhaps small boats hauled up the slipway on trailers), the island s home to three other significant structures, all designed by Jim.

The first and largest of these is the New Pramma House, and it literally dominates Gruavik 2, sitting as it does on the highest point of the island’s spine capable of comfortably supporting a building. As one might expect from such a position, it presents commanding views to the east and west, and is most easily reached by walking up the volcanic sands of the slope at the southern end of the boat moorings.

This route actually passes below a trail cut along the spine of the island to connect the New Pramma House with the remnant of an old lookout building on a shoulder of rock looking to the east, the black coastal sands below it speared by plugs of rock which have stood firm against the passage of time and tide as sea has clearly conquered the softer rock and earth around them so only they remain.

As well as connecting the main house to the out look-out building, the rough path also branches to provide access to the second largest house on the island as it sits to the south. Crouching on a sturdy foundation of cut and mortared stones, this rectangular cottage is hunched behind a rocky wall cut through be steps running down from the trail, and firmly states that the flat headland on which it sits is its own to command, a large deck extending out from it to the edge of the rock.

Those walking around the coat of the island will actually pass under this cottage by means of a tunnel cutting through the rock below it, passing by way of one of several places to sit scattered across the island. The tunnel will bring explorers to a further stretch of dark beach down to which the path from the top of the island descends by way of wooden board walks hugging the rock, platformed stairs and broad wooden decks.  One of these decks extends out over the sea, in part sheltered by more fingers of rock which rise from the waves and perhaps help break the worse of the sea’s ebb and flow to leave the waters here calm enough for safe bathing and swimming.

It is to the north of these boardwalks and reached via a path of loosely laid planks on the sand, that the third of the houses can be found. Like the others, it is of an ultra-modern, clean look, and it sits within it own gravel surround to offer split-level accommodation as it looks westward. However, it is on the rock-straddled beach extending to the front of this house – and home to numerous seagulls resting their wings – that a curiosity lies.

Ranged over the sand is a scattering of Czech hedgehogs. Are they a remnant of the war time era, originally placed there to prevent tanks and other vehicles from crawling up the beach between the rocks at low tide, or ready to lurk under the waves at high tide awaiting the opportunity to rip out the hulls of unwary landing craft? Perhaps they have been gathered by a dedicated artist and painted against the harm of rust before being deliberately set out in a modern artistic statement? Either option pokes at the imagination.

From here, circling the island on foot is completed around the base of the northern cliffs along a gravel path as it returns visitor to the Landing Point. Or, if you prefer, the path can serve as the start of your explorations! 😀 .

I’ve always enjoyed and appreciated Jim’s builds, but have to confess there is something about Grauvik 2 that really appealed to me; I’m not sure if (again) this is due to the hint of the rugged beauty of Iceland within it (Iceland being one of the two major island countries in the world I absolutely adore visiting), or simply an admiration for the design as a whole (I admit to being particularly drawn to the New Pramma House!).

Not one to miss – the PBR caveat notwithstanding.

SLurl Details

• Grauvik 2 (Liberia Isle, rated Adult)