Category: Exploring Second Life

I’ve been back on my café-hopping again of late, with a recent stop being that of Triple Sweet Café, designed and operated by Nisha Nebula (StarfireNebula).

Located within a Homestead region and sitting on the largest of five islands located therein, the Triple Sweet Café would – but for the trees which form the island’s major occupiers – offer a commanding view out over the waters towards two of the other four islands. It would also provide a broke of the island’s foreshore, where a dock points out from the land, a place where rowing boats await those who fancy taking a trip out on the water. However, should you opt to do so, please note that with the exception of the little island closest to the café’s (and linked to it via a humpbacked bridge), the small islands are private residences, so please do not approach or explore without permission.

However, as noted above, the café is screened from the westward island by trees and they climb up the rugged hillside to its flat top, giving the café and its aged terrace and foreland a cosy sense of privacy and detachment; marking them as a place where people can come and forget worries and upsets and simply relax and let the time pass without care.

The converted cottage in which the Triple Sweet is located is the only building on the island. It offers a snug main room complete with a counter where coffee and pastries might be purchased and comfortable armchairs and sofas sit around an open fire – something likely to prove popular with visitors as the nights start to drawn in here in the northern hemisphere.

A second little snug space sits above, on a half-floor reached via a spiral stairway. Should the main room, with its armchairs and tables and chairs prove to be a little busy, a connecting hall offers the way to a glass-roofed side room. This also offers comfortable armchairs before a fireplace, together with counter seating. It’s a genuinely warm, friendly place, whilst the old terrace outside the front door has seating for those who enjoy coffee and sunshine.

The café shares the hilltop with a wooden deck presented as an event space; dances are available for the romantically-inclined, while tables to one side offer further places to sit and enjoy a drink and a nibble.

Nor is sitting in or close to the café the only options for visitors to the island. Follow the steps at the front of the café’s grounds to the lowland area, and it will not open lead to the small dock mentioned above, but also opens the way to most of the other places where people can sit and cuddle or chat and pass the time. One of these – the little campsite – has a path curving away to it to where a second set of steps descend the hill from the café to reach the stone bridge as it hops of the water to the little island I also referenced above.

Low-lying and circular in nature, the island is home to ruins of an equally circular form. What they may represent is up to the imagination, but with the surrounding trees and flow of vines over the stonework, it forms another place of romance for dancers, the fountain at its centre completing the attraction of this quiet location.

Like many places in Second Life, Triple Sweet Café is dressed for the Autumn / Fall, with many of the trees around the café heavy with leaves turning brown, gold and red, while some of the leaves having decided to make the jump for the ground, where the colours also reflect the time of year, even as racoons and squirrels roam. Also given the time of year, the trappings of Halloween have started to appear, both indoors and out.

Highly photogenic and finished with a fitting local soundscape, Triple Sweet Café makes for an inviting and engaging visit. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a coffee and a cinnamon roll with my name on them 🙂 .

SLurl Details

Triple Sweet Café (Hydra, rated Moderate)

It’s been a good few months since my last visit to Elvion, so when Cube Republic sent me a link to an image showing the region’s current iteration, I realised it was high time I dropped in again.

The work of region holders Bo Zano (BoZanoNL) and his SL/RL partner, Una Zano (UnaMayLi), Elvion has tended to shift between Homestead and Full regions, but whichever it has occupied, it has never failed to offer settings of intrinsic natural beauty rich in detail and thoroughly photogenic.

Most often the builds are focus on very pastoral settings, rich in flora and fauna, and sometimes with a lean towards fantasy environments. Some iterations, however, have at times touch on more rural environments – such as with the design the couple presented back towards the start of 2023 (see: Elvion’s coastal retreat in Second Life). With the September iteration, Bo and Una take the region in another direction, offering a setting reflecting the ecological threat of climate change / global warming and the effect it is set to have on the likes of coastal cities and towns.

With rising global temperatures cities become less habitable. Nature is taking back and people are migrating to the country. Except some, who find peace and see the beauty.

– Elvion About Land

However, this shouldn’t be taken to mean this current iteration of Elvion is in any way a treatise on the threat of climate change and rising sea levels. Rather it is a visual ode to the fact that nature has a way of taking care of her own and redressing the balance when it comes to humanity’s claims on the land, even after those claims may have resulted in the land being ravaged beyond hope.

Elvion, September 2023The core of the build suggests the outskirts of a city or town, probably coastal in nature, and where an elevated freeway once provided rapid access to the heart of the conurbation without a lot of tedious mucking about navigating the gridwork of edge-of-town streets or dealing with locals, the broad lanes of the road instead being raised away from all that to run alongside the rail tracks which once carried goods trains on their backs.

However, the traffic carrying days of both rail and road have long passed; the freeway is in almost total collapse, the rail lines similarly broken and incapable of carrying. Even the buildings rising above or visible from the elevated roadway have clearly been long deserted, with some showing signs of being close to joining some of their brethren in collapse. At ground level, streets have largely vanished, becoming overgrown with weeds and grasses or lost under pools and channels where water has naturally taken command.

Exactly what has happened here is open to interpretation. Did the sea levels rise sufficiently to start drowning the town, resulting in its abandonment? Did it suffer the battering force of one or more hurricanes or typhoons so severe, abandonment rather than recovery was seen to be the only sensible option? was it broken by the force of a tsunami which originated across the seas but spent its fury here? The story is yours to decide.

What does appear to be clear is that whatever happened, it occurred long enough ago for Nature engage in the long, slow process of reclamation, and is now a good way along that path. The hardtop of roads and parking lots is being taken over by weeds and grass; vines hang from the sides of shops and the barriers guarding the edge of elevated road sections; a children’s play area is now little more than a rusted hulk, its tone matching the majority of the remaining vehicles scattered throughout – some of which are sprinkled across the freeway as if they were, for whatever reason, deserted in a rush by owners and passengers alike.

Elsewhere the presence of water along some of the depressions caused by former roads is such that little island have had time to be established and freshwater ponds form, offering homes for a range of waterfowl and wildlife. Even the wrecks of vehicles have become so accepted that they are now little more than perches from which heron can watch for signs of passing fish in the waters around them. Bear and beaver are equally at home here now, as are deer, whilst geese find the setting more than acceptable as a stop-over during their long migration flights.

Also scattered throughout the setting are signs that not everyone has fled this place; to the south, for example, someone has created a little homestead for themselves. A wind turbine provides lighting for the simple shack, chickens and goats are being reared, horses looked after (including one that will rez rideable copies of itself, and a canoe is kept in good order, presumably for fishing trips.

This is not the only sign of human habitation. Elsewhere, someone has built a raft while boardwalks and decks and scattered around on and over the waters, and at least one tree appears to have been felled to create a makeshift bridge over a water channel.  But whether this is all the work of those living at the homestead, or whether it speaks to a little community of people holding-out among the ruins is for you to decide. And given there are these signs of habitation, so too can be found places to sit and pass the time, and appreciate the beauty of the setting.

As always with Elvion, there is a tremendous amount to see and appreciate with this build; far more than either my wittering here or meagre images herein can convey. As such, and as always, a visit is highly recommended.

SLurl Details

• Elvion (rated Moderate)

The year is turning and, for those of us in the northern hemisphere autumn is once more starting to show its face. With it comes the popular redressing of many regions in Second Life to provide autumnal (or Fall, if you prefer) colours. One of these is the Homestead region held by Flower Caerndow, which she offers as a public space for people to explore, enjoy and photograph.

Presented as Shades of Autumn, a name which precisely describes the setting, this is a landscape rich in the greens, browns, and golds, and so on associated with the season. However, there is so much more to appreciate here than a single season.

This is a landscape dominated by ruins, the largest of which being a Norman-style keep sitting astride the region’s northern highlands – as one might reasonable expect. With the curtain walls of the inner ward largely intact, the keep carries with it a sense of romance inside and out. Close by, and overlooking the water’s edge, is a single tower, perhaps one a part of larger fortifications which once formed a ring out outer defences for the main castle but now offers a point from which to appreciate it as it now stands – and imagine how it might once have looked.

Away to the south and occupying what is effectively a broad headland, sit the ruins of a chapel. It is far enough away from the castle so as to suggest it always stood outside of the Castle’s walls – not an uncommon state of place for the medieval period – but close enough that it could be protected by the presence of whoever occupied the castle. Together, the castle, tower and chapel are not the only ruins to be found within the region, but they are the most visible for those arriving in the setting.

While it is not enforced, the landing point sits towards the east side of the region, close to the tower ruins and the shallow bay it overlooks. It’s a vantage point offering a good view of the keep as it sits upslope, whilst also close by is a broad pool of water which forms the region’s most unusual natural feature.

Clearly sitting over a natural spring, this pool is open on two sides, allowing the water from it to tumble outwards, dropping by means of little falls and two narrow streams to reach the surrounding sea, thus effectively cutting the land in two. Fortunately, visitors are spared any wet feet thanks to the three bridges spanning the streams, even if two of them are slightly makeshift in nature.

Although the ruins clearly point to the island being occupied during medieval times, they do not mean the Normans were the first to inhabit it; also occupying the slope leading up the keep is a ring of Neolithic standing stones. They indicate there is a much older tale to be told about the island and its past. A further sense of mystery (and fantasy) is added through the presence of crystals and otherworldly-seeming plants (particularly in the keep’s inner ward) and the presence of statues here and there, all of which further add to the sense of romance found within the the keep.

And romance is very much the focus here, alongside that of photography, with any backstory we might care to create while visiting purely a matter for our imaginations. This focus on romance can further be found throughout the setting in the form of the many places visitors can find to side, cuddle and simply pass the time. Some of these are easy to find, others might require a little more in the way of exploration.

This is also an island with a secret; one which is not that hard to find, admittedly. It takes the form of an Experience-based teleport portal, and delivers visitors to a sky island which not only continues the theme it also – in Flower’s own words, offers a memory of the region’s previous iteration, thus connecting the two. Follow the path there to the portal leading back to ground level.

With a richness of beauty and nature, Shades of Nature is an engaging setting to visit, one which is – quite obviously – highly photogenic.  The attention to detail is superb, and the way in which Flower has brought everything together is pretty much perfect. Definitely not one to miss.

SLurl Details

• Shades of Autumn (Enchanted Remnants, rated Moderate)

For summer 2023, Jim Garand offers a new iteration of his Grauland region (and home to his M1 poses store, located in the sky over the region).

Partially surrounded by off-region landscape elements (ALT-zoom out a distance and then tap ESC to race your camera back to your avatar if the off-region elements don’t render – this will hopefully cause them to pop-up), this is an engaging simple region design of a tropical or sub-tropical nature that mixes a cocktail of features and locations and encourages the imagination to take a sip and take flight.

Sliced almost entirely in two by the presence of an east-west oriented water channel, the region presents a landscape similarly oriented along the same cardinal points across both of the resultant land masses, with the uplands to the east and lowlands to the west, where sits a saltwater mangrove swamp. To the east and within the uplands, a waterfall drops from sheer cliffs into a broad pool, the water from it flowing east to enter the wetlands to mix its waters with the sea – although how much longer this is to remain as the sole route for the out flowing water to take is open to question.

This is because all that separates the pool from the waters to the east is a low rock-and-shingle bar, its presence suggesting the cliff at this point which may have once connected the two land masses has collapsed. It forms a low barrier ripe for the tide to wash away as it seeks to reach the cove, watched over by a single thumb of rock sitting just beyond the shingle.

However, the major point of interest for this setting lies with the ruins scattered across the landscape. Comprising hewn but unfaced blocks of stone, these take a variety of forms of mixed potential use. For example, one might be taken to be the remnants of some form of small fortification, with the footings of three round towers linked by curtain walls form a triangular courtyard; another overlooks the wetlands as the water channel passes below.

Across the water – spanned by a stone bridge – is a more extensive collection of ruins. In part, these suggest they may once have been a part of a western religious centre; the layout of the main structure resembling as it does that of a Norman-era church. However, the stonework seems to by far older than might be associated with such as structure. Perhaps the neighbouring ruins predate the church, and their stones were used in its construction. Let your imagination offer up stories of its own.

A stone stairway climbs the hill behind the ruins to where what’s left of a tower sits alongside of an open pool forming the head of the waterfall. From here it is possible to look back to the southern highlands and the strange arrangement of stones crowning the hill there. Quite what these are is also open to the imagination. Are they all that are left of the raised floor once belonging to a temple or palace, or something else?

More mysteries can be found down in the waters of the wetlands. Here among the mangroves and pines are two statues on raised plinths, offering hints of both Roman and Greek mythology. Also to be found over the waters here is a hanger belonging to the Grauland Flying Service – a place connected to the land via a wooden boardwalk. Its presence suggests this might be a remote destination for charter flights by those wishing to explore / study the ruins.

One the same side of the setting as the hanger is a cabin. Makeshift in nature it nevertheless offers a cosy retreat – but to whom is again open to the imagination – although whoever it is would appear to be a keen musician.

As with all of Jim’s builds, this iteration of Grauland offers multiple opportunities for photography, while the places to sit also scattered across it give plenty of choice for those wishing to sit and pass the time. And don’t worry about the jaguar (possibly acting as a stand-in for a panther?); he’s more interested in keeping to the shade (or having his picture taken!) than in hunting anyone!

SLurl Details

• Grauland (Liberia Isle, rated Adult)

I recently received a personal note from Hera (zee 9) Informing me that she has once more brought back her famous Goatswood build to Second Life and inviting me to drop in. It’s a place I first visited roughly a decade ago, and to which I most recently returned during its last iteration in-world in April 2022. It’s a place which Hera has always updated in some manner with each appearance, whilst also retaining the core of this very English rural township with strong vibes of medieval origins in its looks.

The latest iteration of Goatswood, which opened earlier in August (and which Hera informs me will remain available for about a month), continues this tradition in offering the familiar setting with some new elements. It share the region in which it is located with a new build, Houndstead Abbey, which very much carries on – in a manner of speaking – from where Whitby Abbey left off, having previously shared the region with Goatswood back in April 2022 (see: Revisiting Hera’s Whitby in Second Life), as well as enjoying a number of iterations at Hera’s hands.

Throughout all of its iterations, Goatswood has offered one of the most naturally immersive environments for casual role-play available in Second Life, bringing together a rich mix of fantasy, Victorian-era elements (notably the railway station and stream train), the aforementioned medieval look and feel and a strong infusion of magic (be it dark or light).

Some of this history is celebrated within the short stories scattered throughout the setting (and thus encouraging carful exploration in order that they might be found and read) and which may help those interesting in doing so to enter the region’s photographic competition, which runs through until September 2nd, 2023 with a total prize pool of L$12,000 – of which L$8,000 will go to the first prize winner. Details of the competition can be obtained from the region’s landing point.

Retaining the sense of a Cotswolds origin, this version of Goatswood brings with it the familiar windmill, the Roebuck Coach House and the church, together with hints of daily life from work at the smithy through to an abandoned attempt at cricket on a green which has perhaps seen better days (and which is set before The Shunters Social Club, which some of us from the UK might seen as a little nod to both railway social clubs and a certain television series of a few decades ago).

One building I don’t recall from previous iterations is the circular keep sitting to the north-west of the town. This appears to have once been outside of the main walls of the town, reached via the road beyond via the road beyond the stream following along that side of Goatswood and using a solidly-built stone bridge to span the stream’s steep banks to reach the curtain walls of the tower’s courtyard. However, given more peaceful times now prevail, some of these curtain walls appear to have been dismantled, allowing the tower to more directly join with the town, little more than a low wooden gate sitting between the well-tended gardens which now occupy a good part of the tower’s courtyard and the street leading back to the Roebuck.

The tower is one of several furnishing buildings within the setting, and it offers a curiously attractive blending of fantasy with classical romanticism (such as the painting within the boudoir-come-bedroom on the middle floor, with its suggestions of Guinevere and Lancelot – or perhaps Tristan and Isolde, as both fit), medieval practicalities (the tapestries draped on the walls) and genteel English afternoons of the landed (afternoon tea and a spot of painting). All with just a flavouring of the magical essence that permeates Goatswood.

There is much that I could write about this corner of mythological / imagined England, notwithstanding my previous writings on Goatswood in these pages. However, it remains a place that should be best seen and experienced than written about – so I will leave you to catch the train from the landing point (touch the Goatswood sign over the platform, rather than  – as with past iterations – touching the open door of the carriage). Instead, I’ll turn my attention to Houndstead Abbey, the second part of the setting, and reached via the sign on the other side of the landing point’s railway platform to that for Goatswood.

As noted above, Houndstead is something of a spiritual successor to Hera’s previous Whitby build, inasmuch as it shares the region with Goatswood and has, as its focal point, the ruins of a large abbey. However, this model – once again an original by Hera, as is the case with the majority of her buildings and structures – is modelled after Abaty Tyndyrn (Tintern Abbey), situated on the Welsh bank of the river Wye as it forms the border between Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire.

Whilst the  Dissolution of the Monasteries brought about Tintern’s fall into ruin, the abbey was, and remains of historic importance, being the first  Cistercian abbey founded in Wales (1131) and only the second such abbey to be founded in Britain, founded just three years earlier in Waverley, Worcestershire. As they stand today, the ruins at Tintern represent the much larger, Gothic abbey structures which were constructed over the original buildings, starting in around 1269 and which almost completely replaced them, although hints still remain in the ruins available to visitors today.

Houndstead shares much of a history similar to that of Tintern. Like the latter, it sits within a river valley – in this case the mythical Wyvern – and thrived up until Henry VIII stomped on things. Thereafter, and as Hera notes:

It was fair game for anyone who needed stone for building, and eventually it was reduced to just a shell of its former glory. In the early 1800’s a well-known artist of the period installed a statue of the Elven Queen at its centre. And soon after, a local theatre group performed Shakespeare’s A Mid Summer Nights Dream amongst the ruins [and] the ruin began to acquire a reputation as a place of strange happenings and fae magic.

– Hera’s notes accompanying the Houndstead Abbey build

This reputation as a place of mystery and magic was probably due in part to the standing stones standing guard around a low mound not entirely out-of-place among the surrounding hills. However, whilst its form match match the gently rounded slopes of the hills, likely caused by the passage of ice in ages past, the mound is anything but a natural feature. As Hera again notes, it was found to be the burial mound of Saxon chieftain – thought to have perhaps been the original founder of the settlement of GatWode not far distant, and which in time became Goatswood.

Exactly where the town lies in relation to the Abbey ruins is hard to say. The presence of the stream suggests it is not too far from Goatswood, and the path running north from one of the bridges over the stream might well offer a route between the two – even if it does peter out after following the stream for a short distance. However, the sense of separation from the town gives the abbey a further edge of mystery – one greatly enhanced by the onset of night, when the light of candles (maintained by whom?) and lanterns illuminate the otherwise darkened abbey, and flames of naked torches guard the path to the burial chamber.

As always with Hera’s builds, both Goatswood and Houndstead Abbey offer a lot to see and appreciate – and the photo competition may well make a visit quite rewarding!

SLurl Details

• Goatswood / Houndstead Landing Point (Themysciya, rated Adult)