Category: Exploring Second Life

Yasminia – click any image for full size

“The plan was to close it, but I don’t mind people coming to see it really,” Busta (BadboyHi) says of Yasminia, his homestead region. He’d originally opened it to public access for a limited time, the original intention being to close at the end of August. However, When I dropped in recently, it was still accesible and Busta indicated there was no immediate plan to close. “So yes, you are welcome to come see :)”, he told me.

I’d actually come across Yasimina via Loverdag’s fabulous photos of the region back in August, and dropped in shortly before the end of the month to have a look around for myself. I didn’t blog then because of the word it would be closing. However, Following Busta’s confirmation, I jumped back for another explore and a round of picture-taking.

Yasminia

This is a simple pastoral region, offering a landscape idea for wandering and escaping the world and which rolls from rocky hills to low-lying pastures cut by waterlogged land and channels spanned by wooden bridges; a place where trees offer shade from the sun and rutted tracks lead the visitor onwards and the air is vibrant with nature’s many sounds.

A farmhouse sits on a ledge of rocky land on the east side of the region, where the sails of a windmill turn in a gentle breeze, and ducks, geese and chickens wander the grassy yard. Down a path and a track from here – visitors have a choice of routes – fields sit alongside the calm waters, horses grazing contentedly. A tractor is parked to one side of the tracks, speaking to this being very much a working farm.

Yasminia

A footpath to one side of the tractor offers the way down between fences and onward over a small bridge to where apples are being plucked from their trees. A second bridge – this one of stone – then provides the means to reach a little gathering of chairs and sofas at the water’s edge – a place, perhaps, where those from the farm come to sit at the end of a long day’s work. It is one of several little posts visitors might find in their wanderings where they might sit and rest, and if so minded, enjoy a little cuddle.

The beauty of Yasminia is in its simplicity; beyond the farm, the region lies uncluttered with signs of living, yet has enough to offer the curious or those seeking a place to relax with a friend. The trees grow tall, the cuddle spots are widely separated to ensure some privacy, and the footpaths and tracks make for an amiable walk, accompanied by the region’s soft, natural sound scape as the surrounding hills beyond the region give it a feeling of intimacy.

Yasminia

The region has a neutral windlight, but the design is such that it offers itself to most settings with equal beauty, making it an ideal location for photography, as I hope my efforts here show, all of which were intentionally taken using a different preset, suitably adjusted.

Many thanks to Busta for offering his creation for us all to enjoy – and a belated happy rezday as well!

SLurl Details

• Yasminia (Rated: General)

Vintage Romance – click any image for full size

Vintage Romance, designed by Britain Leigh Knave (Britain Knave), her partner, Marcus Knave (Marcus688) and Nïc Bour  (NicBor), is a place almost literally caught in time, a reflection of the moment at which the coming together of two hearts in love is forever frozen in Timeless Love.

At first glance a near-monochrome, frosted world, Vintage Romance presents visitors with a land of rocky islets sitting over freezing waters and beneath cloud-laden skies. Trees stand with boughs glistening in hoar-frost and wooden bridges span the cold, still waters. However, despite the cold look, this is a place with much to attract the eye and the camera and offers a romantic warmth.

Vintage Romance

The region has a distinctly west-east orientation, offering something of a narrative around the idea of love and marriage. Visitors arrive on the west side, where the bride’s limousine is parked. From here, the route points eastwards, passing a frozen fountain and under arches of frosted boughs to a small table on which sit bouquets, candles, what might be an order of ceremony book, a camera and photos of a newly wed couple.

Beyond this little tableau, reminding us of the wedding act, the path splits, leftward, across a wooden bridge, lies a reception area with set ready for music, guests and dancing, and completed by a place of honour for the bride and groom. Meanwhile, the remaining path, also spanning the waters on a trestle bridge, leads to the place where the wedding ceremony itself is held.

Vintage Romance

Open to the sky, wooden doors guard the entrance, a further arched tunnel of trees beyond leading to guest seating and the altar. More trees, trunks bent as with time, line either side of this rocky place, standing as sentinels watching over proceedings – or perhaps as the columns of nature’s church, delicate net curtains draped from their boughs.

Linking these two  – place of ceremony and place of celebration – are further wooden bridges suspended beneath white balloons, the waters between the two islets and the suspending bridges home to Mistero Hifeng’s che ci importa del mondo (we care about the world), a very visual expression of love and cherishing another.

Vintage Romance

Around these major locations there is much more to be seen. A (tracked) steam train sits to one side of the region, the cab plushly arranged, a “just married” sign hanging from its safety rail, all suggestive of happy couples heading off to honeymoons in romantic locations (in this case, Paris). Also to be found are places to sit and vignettes telling other aspects of that special day.

Whether you’re a romantic at heart or looking for a location just that little bit different from other places you may have visited, whether for photographs or simply to enjoy, Vintage Romance has much to offer visitors. Those who do visit and take photos are asked to share them in the Vintage romance Flickr group.

Vintage Romance

SLurl Details

• Vintage Romance (Timeless Love) – Rated Moderate

Opening September 16th, 2016: Pandora Resort – click any image for full size

Note: this vision of Pandora Box of Dreams has closed.

I’ve admired the region designs by Lokhe Angel Verlack (Jackson Verlack) ever since first encountering Pandora’s Box of Dreams, an evolving series of designs he created, intended to encourage visitors to relax, free their minds, and simply dream. Towards the end of 2015, I was invited by Lokhe’s partner, Miza, to preview their role-playing environment Château Village, which drew inspiration from the World of Darkness universe.

On September 16th, Lokhe and Miza will be opening their latest venture in Second Life called Pandora Resort, which they’ve been working on for the past few months. In their preparations for this, Miza kindly extended another invitation for Caitlyn and I to pay a visit in the run up to the doors opening – and I can honestly say that what we found completely blew us away, presenting visitors with one of the most exquisitely designed regions in Second Life. So much so, that I’ve hopped back daily ever since.

Opening September 16th, 2016: Pandora Resort

As the region won’t be open to everyone until mid-month, I’m not going to offer an in-depth look here, as that would pre-empt things too much. Instead, I’ll leave my more usual travelogue post for around the time the gates are opened for everyone, and use this article – with Miza’s and Lokhe’s permission – as something of a sneak peek of Pandora Resort, which I hope will whet appetites.

“We really wanted to create something different. Well mostly Lokhe! He really got a wide scope of ideas,” Miza said to me during one of my visits. “He really went out of his way this time to bring something unique.”

Opening September 16th, 2016: Pandora Resort

“Unique” is certainly a fitting adjective for Pandora Resort, as is “stunning”,  the word which immediately entered my head as I first flycammed around the region. I can say without any exaggeration that over the years I’ve visited many regions in my Exploring Second Life series, and Pandora Resort offers one of the most impressive landscapes and use of ground space, both horizontally and vertically, I’ve ever witnessed. As your explorations take you from paved streets with boutique shops, public gardens and café seating, to rugged paths passing  through clefts and alongside deep gorges, it is genuinely hard to believe everything is contained within the space of a single region.

Pordora Resort is, to use a final adjective, breathtaking. So do make a note in your diaries / calendars for the weekend of Friday, September 16th, and get yourself ready to take a trip and see for yourself? You will not be disappointed.

Opening September 16th, 2016: Pandora Resort

For those interested, my articles on Pandora’s Box of Dreams can be found here, here and here, and my review of Château Village can be found here.

Crystal Gardens – click any image for full size

Crystal Gardens, designed by Sandi Beaumont (Sandi Benelli) is presented to Second Life travellers as a place for photography and exploration, offering visitors a ruggedly beautiful pastoral seam which is stunning in its simplicity and looks. This is my third visit to Sandi’s designs, having previously written about her work with her partner, Mikal, in February and July 2015.

A homestead region, Crystal Gardens currently comprises three north-south oriented islands separated by a channel of water. The more westerly pair form a finger of land, the tip of which has been sliced off by a further, narrow channel spanned by a log bridge. Both are low-lying and somewhat rugged – the smaller island to the north decidedly more so than its southern cousin. On it sits a conservatory with a distinctly French feel to it, offering visitors comfortable armchairs in which to relax, a small selection of drinks at a small bar, and the promise of possible entertainment, given the microphone and amplifier. It’s a place which hints at being a refined little club, tucked away where only those in the know might find it.

Crystal Gardens

A bar area also comprises part of the southern island, located on the terrace of a Mediterranean villa which appears to be someone’s studio. Bee hives close by offer the promise of fresh honey, while a rowing boat tied up at the wooden jetty offers couples the chance for a little dalliance on the water.

The twin of this rowing bow sits alongside the jetty across the narrow channel separating the largest of the islands from the others. It is here, outside a row of little beach huts that visitors first land. A cooked breakfast awaits anyone feeling peckish on their arrival, and a raft hints at possible adventure at one end of the jetty.

Crystal Gardens

Beyond the beach huts, the island opens out into a gently undulating scene ripe for exploration. To the south sits a small farm of distinctly Tuscan design, whilst northwards, over the low hill marking the centre of the island, a narrow rugged bay cuts deeply into the land, a distinctly modern, open-sided summer-house overlooking it, with horses grazing close by. The summer-house might belong to the occupants of a converted workshop sitting on the east coast of the island. This has been converted into a comfortable home, while the ramshackle pier on which it sits suggests both have seen a hard-working life in the past.

Watched over by two lighthouses, one to the north-east, and the other to the west and off-sim, Crystal Gardens suggests itself as a small, private island lying just off the coast of somewhere like Scotland or perhaps the Canadian coasts (although I couldn’t help but picture it lying Lundy-like in the Bristol Channel). It is ruggedly beautiful, with an air of serenity about it which naturally encourages visitors to tarry.

Crystal Gardens

For photographers there is much to be found here. While entirely natural in look and feel, and flowing as a considered whole, Crystal Gardens also offers the locations and scenes scattered across its rocky isles and around its coastline as individual vignettes, ripe for the camera – and I hope some of my efforts here show. So attractive is it for photography, it is very easy to lose track of time when taking pictures!

Whether looking for somewhere to take pictures, a place to explore or somewhere to simply pass the time of day, Crystal Gardens has everything you could need. Beautifully conceived and executed by Sandi, and topped with a matching ambient sound scape, it’s a place which should be on every SL traveller’s itinerary.

Crystal Gardens

SLurl Details

• Crystal Gardens (Rated: moderate)

Astralia – click any image for full size

Astralia is the name of the homestead region held by artist and blogger Oema, and which is currently featured in the August 26th Destination Guide Editor’s Picks. It is offered as a surreal landscape in which visitors are free to relax, roam, take photographs and view the art on display.

Surrounded on three sides by off-sim mountains, Astralia is a water bound place, waves gently foaming in from the surrounding mountains towards a calmer centre while a gentle breeze caresses wind chimes, filling the air with their gentle reverberations. The rich azure of the waters here is a perfect reflection of a cobalt sky flecked with cloud, beneath which a ribbon of aurora ebbs, rolls and curls.

Astralia

Across the region lie nine vignettes, each offering its own unique look and opportunities for photography or relaxation. Some of these feature buildings or structures, some form a small island of grass, some sit directly on the water. They all face or flank a crystal palace which also rises from the water, home to a small art gallery, while a further island sits in the air nearby, offering a further floating sanctuary.

By default, the region windlight presents Astralia as something of a watercolour painting, the surrealist element coming not so much from the watery setting, but from the globe of mighty Jupiter,  who marches around the region behind the mountains, Great Red Spot staring down like an ever-present eye, watching all comings and goings.

Astralia

For photographers, Astralia’s default windlight works well, whilst the region is well suited to a good cross-section of others as well – I used Annan Adored’s Tricoloured II for the images here. For those wishing to simply sit and relax, the region offers plenty of spots to do just that, and presents a smoothing piano audio stream ideal for putting the stresses of life out of your head and simply losing yourself in your surroundings.

SLurl Details

• Astralia (Rated:  Moderate)

Arranmore – click any image for full size

Now open in Second Life is Arranmore, the latest region designed by Lauren Bentham. Although its name from Arranmore (Árainn Mhór, essentially “large island”), the largest inhabited island off the west coast of County Donegal, Ireland, this is an entirely a fictional place of dark fantasy – and extremely atmospheric to boot.

Lauren has a long history of region design in Second Life, offering some of the most popular destinations for SL traveller on the grid. From the Baja group of region (Baja Norte, Baja Cove, Baja Bay and Baja Sands), through the likes of Storybrooke Gardens (a personal favourite – see here and here), Bentham Manor, Everwinter, to her most recent prior design, Netherwood (see my April 2016 review), Lauren’s work is deservedly known and appreciated. I’ve little doubt Arranmore will be the same.

Arranmore

Visitors arrive on the west side of the region, on a small platform alongside a single railway line which curls south-to-north along the west side of the island without actually going anywhere: the two extremes of the track end in buffers. Perhaps it once went further – the fallen mass of a lighthouse suggests a calamity befell the north-west end of the island, so perhaps the tracks were washed away in whatever storm may have been responsible for bringing down that tower.

Ringed by the high peaks of surrounding islands, Arranmore broods beneath a sombre, storm-laden blanket of heavy grey cloud. Thunder rolls around the rugged peaks of the other islands, a deep booming against the plaintive cry of gull and moan of wind. Lightning flickers and forks, reflected by the mist rolling in from the sea as it drifts inland between the island’s trees like a living thing, watched over by the ever-rotating eye of a surviving lighthouse.

Arranmore

On arrival, newcomers are invited to take a torch, offered alongside the region’s rules. If you’re keeping to the default windlight – which I suggest you do while initially exploring – the torch is a handy thing to have. Across the tracks from the little railway platform sit the entrance to the grounds of a once great manor house. This, we are told, was had been the home to Lord & Lady Inman and their family, all of whom mysteriously vanished whilst on holiday. Since their disappearance, the house has slowly fallen into ruin and the fortunes of the island had declined.

It is along the path leading towards the brooding form of the manor house that we come across the first signs that this is indeed a place where those still living on the island might be somewhat Lovecraftian in their ways – or perhaps it was the Inmans themselves? Just over the wall from the path sits a rotunda, its broken dome still offering some protection for a statue of an adult figure holding an tentacled infant child close to his or her chest. Even along the path to the house strangeness can be found: an empty hearse, a mildewed stuffed toy, its eyes apparently cut out, occupying the basket of a tricycle, and the gaunt figure of a local, funereal in his top hat and tails, holding aloft a lantern – whether in greeting or warning is yours to decide.

Arranmore

As with all of Lauren’s region designs, there is a lot to see here, be it in the manor house as it slowly moulders away, or in the surrounding grounds and other building on the island. All of it is beautifully composed to create an environment that is a curious mix of the dark, the beautiful, the mysterious, the unsettling, and utterly captivating. One which really needs to be experienced rather than simply written about.

Lauren notes that the region is primarily for enjoyment and photography – those wishing to rez props in support of their photo work can join the local group for L$175 and do so – but role-play is welcome. There is a warning in the rules that weapons are not allowed – although seeing a member of the admin team walking around carrying an assault rifle seemed  a little at odds with the spirit of the rules :). There’s also a Flickr group for those so minded to add their pictures.

Arranmore

Definitely a must for any SL traveller’s itinerary.

SLurl Details

• Arranmore (Rated: Moderate)