Category: Exploring Second Life

Bloom Haven is the latest Homestead region design by Yoyo Collas and AmyDenise. I’ve covered many of Yoyo’s designs in these pages, whether his own or collaborations with AmyDenise, so I’m always keen to what has sprung from his imagination.

The region sits as a rugged island sitting under a late summer sky, its three high peaks topped by wind turbine (depending on the position of the Sun) cast long shadows across the lower-lying landscape. Two of these tall peaks directly overlook the fourth major element in the setting’s landscape: a large lake towards the south-west of the island.

Nestled in the vast expanse of the ocean lies Bloom Haven, a charming little green island waiting to be explored. Surrounded by shimmering blue waters, this tranquil paradise is covered in lush, vibrant foliage and blooming flowers that fill the air with sweet fragrances. The island’s gentle hills and hidden coves invite adventurers to discover their secrets, while the peaceful beaches offer perfect spots to relax and soak in the natural beauty. Bloom Haven is a hidden gem in the ocean’s embrace, ready to welcome curious explorers seeking adventure and serenity alike.

– Bloom Haven’s Destination Guide description

The Landing Point sits within a meadow to the east side of the island. It has its back towards southern hills that climb up to one of the two peaks overlooking the lake mentioned above. A second of the two peaks rises on the east side of the meadow, as if standing guard over one of the routes down to the island’s accessible coastal shelf.

An outcropping on rock extends inland from this third peak, breaking up what might otherwise have been an island-spanning meadow of lush grass and wild flowers.

With a small pond of water trapped within its clutches, this spine of rock is topped by a tall and broad wooden deck, which in turn supports a large, open-plan cabin complete with a tall stone-built tower rising from one side. The latter has the appearance of a lighthouse tower although no lantern sits within its upper level, despite the manner in which it emulates the lamp room and cupola of a lighthouse.

To reach the northern meadow, visitors must skirt around the cabin and the rocks under it, passing by way of a wide wooden deck sitting above the northern extent of the western lake. A long suspension bridge is anchored to this deck. Reaching out over the water, it swings low over the lake and even resting on rocks before gently rising to the southern shore and proving access to the western side of the island.

Whereas the southern meadow appears to be in part something of a garden space to the deck-occupying cabin – albeit with sheep grazing on the slopes rising to the southern peak – the northern meadow appears to be solely given over to cattle grazing, there being no direct access to it from the cabin (save by jumping from the deck!).

This northern meadow provides further access to the coastal area of the island. This is largely notable for its houseboats and caravan gathered around and on a shingle headland, where they form something of a shoreline encampment.

As well as the large lake with its low-slung bridge, the western extent of the island is home to another meadow where horses graze and an artist has been at work. A hilly climb offers the way up to the island’s western peak and its wind turbine, beneath which a bench offers a view out over the island’s interior.

Throughout the region are multiple places to sit, indoors and out, on the water and close by it, on the coast and among the hills and slopes. All encourage visitor to lengthen their stay and enjoy the region’s relaxing beauty. The island is also rich in wildlife in addition to the more domesticate animals and chickens. Capybara, otters, ferrets and raccoons mix with egrets, red-crowned cranes, geese and other wildfowl to add a further layer of life to the region.

In all, Bloom Haven is a richly detailed and engaging destination in SL, and well worth a visit.

SLurl Details

• Bloom Haven (rated Moderate)

Paradise Of Fantasy is both a home to the Vanaheim family and a setting open to the public to explore and enjoy. A Full private region, the location is the work of BarB Randt Vanaheim (BarBarella Darkrose) and Ivy Vanaheim (Ivory Ireton), and encompasses within itself multiple aspects of fantasy – although it is not per se a role-play setting.

Nature meets fantasy in this home for the “Vanaheim Family” and all fantasy creatures. This  magical place where fantasy creatures stand strong together in light and darkness.

– Paradise Of Fantasy About Land / Destination Guide description

The Landing Point sits just off of one to the many trails winding through the setting, and close to a large manor house. Like all the buildings in the region, it is open to the public, although the furnishings are an esoteric curio. Rooms include conventional lounge-style furniture to more period pieces, to a classroom (for magic?) and offices with a mystical air about them, whilst the loft is devoted to games and pastimes.

The Landing Point itself includes a Welcome scroll. When touched, it will provide an introductory notecard for visitors, together with the local rules. The latter are minimal and easy to remember, being common sense.

Where you go from the Landing Point is entirely up to you; as noted, there are numerous trails winding through the setting, and signposts (and warning signs in some cases!) offer direction or  humorous cautions.

The landscape itself is beautifully put together, presenting a wooded setting, rich in colour from trees, shrubs and the flowers carpeting much of the ground.  Two streams cut through the setting, one rising form waterfall on the south-east coast of the land to meander northwards to empty into a pond tucked in the north-east corner of the region.

The second stream might be considered more of a channel. It enters the region from a bay on the west coast and runs inland before turning north to once more return to the coastline, essentially splitting the north-west corner of the region into its own island.  Both streams are spanned by wooden bridges (and tree trunks) so feet need not get wet when crossing them.

Sitting within north-western corner of the region are two more structures: the Woif’s Grotto and Eiarion. The former is a cottage literally built / hewn into a rock formation, carrying with it a Nordic / medieval sensibility. The latter occupies a headland reaching out from the bay mentioned above. Taking the form of a fairly intact ruin, Eiarion presents a mystery as to how to access it; all of the windows are either intact and glazed or boarded-up.

The solution to the mystery can be found in the teleport stones which can be found close to each point of interest in the region. These form a network of teleports, and using the Eiarion destination will deliver you to the interior of the ruins – I’ll leave you to reflect on how to move between the two rooms.

This teleport system also provides access to those locations not necessarily directly accessible from the ground. Two of these are in the sky, one of which is well rooted in a fantasy sky, the other offering a Japanese setting. A third lies under the western sea of the region. Taking the form of an octopus’ garden, it comes with the not unreasonable request don’t pee in my sea(!).

A further cottage lies to the north-east of the region. Set as a witch’s home, it offers broom parking outside and potions and seed for sale in the garden. It sits not far from where a fortune teller is waiting to tell you all about your future – or perhaps, how to cover up your past – as the song goes.

Nor is this all; throughout the setting is a richness of detail in glades and along the trails. Ruins sit partially overgrown, little shrines mark hallowed clearings among the trees; benches, chairs, blankets, and boats offer places to sit. For those who enjoy music there is a grassy clearing set up for events, details of which I gather can be obtained by joining the local group.

In all, a beautiful, well-designed region mixing nature, mysticism and fantasy in a package rip for exploration and photography.

SLurl Details

• Paradise Of Fantasy (Tasta Island, rated Moderate)

I recently received an invitation from William Gide to visit Oscarton Forest Park, a setting designed by William and his SL partner, Dekon Carter.

Comprising a number of parcels spanning two regions within the south-east of Heterocera, the park offers around a quarter of a region of a landscaped setting with something of a unique history.

The Park started life as a “COVID sanity project”, helping William – who designed the majority of the ground level elements – cope with lockdown by allowing him to exercise his creativity. Since then, the park has remained open as a public setting which visitors can use as a place to enjoy a sense of nature and recharge their batteries.

Given this, there are a number of distinct Landing Points to be found throughout the park. For the purposes of this piece, I’m going with the “main entrance”, so to speak, as it is here visitors can obtain a notecard with landmarks to the main hangouts within the setting.

Bordered by part of the SLRR to the west and a river gorge to the south, the latter spanned by a bridge leading to what I believe to be William and Dekon’s private home, the public park runs northward. Passing a vegetable garden, the landscape opens out to offer a choice of possible exploration routes, the clearest being the main path.

The latter sweeps out to the east side of the park, passing between two Chinese lion statues, the first of multiple pieces of sculpture awaiting discovery as one explores the park. In making its sweep, the footpath skirts the lower end of the forest, a copse of silver birch. However a trail also runs through the birch trees, almost doubling back on the main path to drop down to where a trail points to the north and west, winding through the forest proper.

The main footpath, meanwhile descends to where a bridge spans one of the parks streams, joining another path as it follows the bank of the stream northwards. Passing by way of a secluded cabin, this path eventually drops down to the setting’s camp site prior to making a sharp left turn to arrive at the octagonal pavilion.

This pavilion can also be reached via one of the many paths branching off from the second trail mentioned above, all of which pass various places to hang-out and also admire some of the large wood sculptures to be found among the trees.

The northern end of the park includes two newer elements. The first is the Oscarton Forest Café. Occupying a large building by Cory Edo, on its east side this overlooks one of the park’s bodies of water and the pavilion beyond. On its west side, the café offers a terrace with seating a view of any passing trains.

Steps lead down from the terrace to a stone footpath and walls forming a border to the park, looking like it may have been some form of ancient fortification. Tucked within a part of these works – which also run along the northernmost extent of the park – is the Oscarton Forest Park Reflection Cove, described as a place for meditation.

Also to be found within these walls is a Zen garden watched over by two large rune stones, whilst the woods in this northern extent of the park also hide the teleport platform up to the sky platform – but I’ll leave that for you to find.

Offered with a richness of detail, Oscarton Forest Park is an idyllic location, and for a first-time public build, is exceptionally pleasing to the eye and rich in opportunities for photography and for relaxing.

My thanks to William for the invitation to visit; I really enjoyed doing so.

SLurl Details

• Oscarton Forest Park (Dubia, rated Moderate)

In talking to Dema Fairport at the Content Creator’s User Group recently, I was reminded that it’s been six years since my last visit to her engaging, Adult-centric and richly landscaped region of Athenaeum (see The scenic glory of Athenaeum in Second Life).

Part of the reason for this is because the major parts of the region are well-established, and only subject to the most subtle of changes – which can made blogging a little difficult. Not that the region should change just for the sake of blog posts; it has scenic beauty which is captivating to both the eye and the camera which could so easily be lost with any large-scale changes.

That said, six years is a long time between visits, so I was keen to wander around once more just for my own interest; and because so much time has passed, I thought I’d offer another write-up for the benefit of those who might not be familiar with the region or its beauty.

The virtual home of the real life Carter/Johnson Library which is owned by Viola Johnson. The library is a collective history of various kinky communities who have chosen to live and love differently. Come explore the Museum and Photo Gallery, take a walk through the lands, or find a place with that special someone to enjoy some relaxing time together or some special kinky time. Photographers Welcome, please be respectful of all.

– Dema’s description of Athenaeum

The (to me) familiar elements within the setting comprise the Carter/Johnson Library, mentioned in Dema’s description, the manor house, the pool house, most of the major structures, including the main bridges and footpaths, and the overall lie of the land, cut through as it is bye channels and a river.

The Landing Point for the setting is on the west side of the region and takes the form of a deck built over the water and home to a café, which I understand from Dema is a new feature of the setting. This sits close the aforementioned Carter/Johnson Library buildings, which itself is worthy of some expansion.

Existing in the physical world, the Carter/Johnson Library and Collection, is a 501(c) (3) organisation founded by Carla Viola “Mama Vi” Johnson (September 9th, 1912 – January 31st, 2006). It forms a collective history of various communities who have chosen to live and love differently. The collection includes thousands of leather, fetish, S/m, kink and alternate sexuality books, magazines, posters, art and more, dating back to the 1700s and chartered to bring this history to the communities it serves.

It is the Library and Collection which supports Athenaeum within Second Life, with the Library within the region recreating of one of the Library’s physical world exhibitions charting the history of BDS and kink from the 1500s to modern times – and offering a glimpse of times early than the 1500s.

A short walk from the museum is a gallery devoted to the work of New York fetish photographer Darque. Also to be found in the plaza and gardens housing the library and gallery is a quiet outdoor seating area complete with playable chess and draughts (or checkers, if you prefer).

Eastwards from the museum and gallery, a cinder path rises into the region’s central uplands to join a broad bridge spanning a gorge to provide access to the manor house is it sits on a high plateau. For those who prefer, a grass trail leads up to where wooden cabins surrounded by tall pines overlooks the north coast beach. One of the two cabins offers a wooden stairway down to the beach, but another way to reach it is to head north from the landing point, following the signs to the camp site out on the north-west headland.

The manor house itself remains much as I originally found it in 2018, when I noted:

Within its rooms are leather arm chairs, great bookcases filled with tomes awaiting reading, fires in the hearths, bottles of port and cigar humidors on some tables, coffee and After Eight mints on others, and just the most subtle of hints as to some of the activities that might follow conversations in these rooms; activities which themselves might be enjoined in the rooms above, going by their décor.

– This blog, August 2018

Again surrounded by trees – Athenaeum is, among other things, a woodland haven – the manor house also features a terrace area for music events, with an adjacent pool. This terrace overlooks a precipitous drop on its west side and one of the region’s smaller islands, whilst on its north side it looks over the channel separating the manor’s high perch from the low-lying museum.

The plateau on which the manor house stations hides a secret. To be honest I didn’t work out how to get down to it and back, and resorted to cheating with a sit TP. I assume there is a hidden TP I missed. Another couple of places I don’t remember from previous visits. One was a smaller house sitting on an island to the south-east, is an outdoor ceremonial area one an island tucked into the north-east corner of the region.

Whether all of these are new additions since my last visit or not, I can’t say; six years is a long time; visits, and memory can play tricks. But that aside, Athenaeum is a richly engaging a beautifully put together region offering a lot to see and appreciate, regardless of one’s interest (or otherwise) in kink.

In fact, such is the overall low-key nature of the region’s BDSM elements, Athenaeum can be enjoyed without reference to it more adult nature, offering as it does a beautiful environment with multiple places to sit and pass the time, and plenty of opportunities for photography.

SLurl Details

• Athenaeum (rated Adult)

Purple Moon Ashes is a Full private region developed as a public space encompassing fantasy and magic, designed by Elguaje70 and DjDDB. It drew my attention after I noted it in the Destination Guide due to the use of items created by Elicio Ember, whom regulars to the pages will know, is both a close friend and a creator of elven-themed designs I never fail to find gorgeously attractive.

Surrounded by off-region hills, Purple Moon Ashes is a setting which becomes increasingly more attractive the longer one spends time within it – although I would note that the Shared Environment available at the time of my visit differed substantially from the EEP settings used in the Destination Guide entry for the region and – in my personal option – didn’t display the region at its best. This being the case, and after a little experimentation, I opted to use one of my personal “fallback” EEP settings for the photographs shown here.

It is a pleasure to invite you to explore this wonderful Purple Moon Ashes, a place where magic lives from the first moment you arrive; enjoy the dragon ride and the gondola ride. Come and discover how much more magic you can experience.

– Purple Moon Ashes About Land Description

The core of the region comprises a circular lake dominated by a central water / ruins feature which includes two large stone water serpents gushing water from their mouths. Three circular dance floors extend out over the lake from the surrounding largely circular, land enclosing the waters. Each of these platforms is placed roughly equidistantly around the circumference of the lake and each offers two points of access to the shallow waters, allowing visitors to walk to the central feature if they so wish.

Outside the lake, the land surrounding it offers multiple points of interest, all neatly linked by footpaths and flower trails.  The Landing Point sits on a plateau on the north-west quadrant of the region and is home to one of the teleport boards offering quick links to the major locations within the region (although I recommend using your pedal extremities to explore!) and the dragon ride mentioned in the About Land description. It also hides the region’s secrets below it – but I’ll leave it to you to discover the way into them 🙂 .

There are two ways down from the top of the plateau, each utilising elements created by Elicio. One runs gently down to the western side of the region, before a glass footpath directs explorers south and then east, where it is possible to climb the long finger of a rising promontory, which itself turns back to the north as it comes to the eastern side of the setting.

The second way down from the plateau is on its north side, passing by way of a large dance area build atop a smaller plateau of rock rising from the sea. Steps from here descend to join another glass path lain among the wildflowers as it travels eastwards to reach a large domed pavilion at it furthest extent, and beyond which the trail becomes one of grass and flowers.

It is this second route down from the plateau which offers one of the opportunities to take one of the region’s gondola tours (just to the left of the raise walkway from the last set if steps descending from the plateau). These tours are point-to-point, and so also allow visitors to reach specific destinations within the region. Boats are suitable for singles or couples, and sitting in a gondola will display a dialogue box of the destinations available from each embarkation point.

As each tour ends at the embarkation point for another, it is possible to use them in sequence to view the region, hopping from one boat to the next at each stop. It is via these gondolas that the narrow spit of land running along the north side of the region is best reached (“Forest Love”).

There is a good degree of repetition across the region in terms of statues and architecture – unicorns large and small, benches with statues, winged fairies spouting water, Elicio’s elven arches and glass walkways, stone gazebos with giant daisy-like places to sit within them, etc. These all work thematically and act as motifs for the region, offering opportunities for the imagination to invent suitable backstories for the setting.

Also to be found through the setting are multiple places to dance, including couples poseballs tucked away here and there as well as the more familiar dance systems hanging in the air over the more obvious dance locations. From the advertising I caught during my visit, I gather the region is also home to live music events. Details of these, I assume, are available through the local Group – but it appears this requires contacting either Elguaje70 or DjDDB in order to join.

With places to sit scattered throughout (including about the sail vessel and within the aforementioned caves), Purple Moon Ashes provides multiple reasons to not only explore, but also to relax and unwind within its borders. The local sounds are not intrusive, and the setting lends itself to a wide variety of EEP options.

In all, a visually engaging and charming visit.

SLurl Details

• Purple Moon Ashes (Purple Moon, rated Moderate)

Back in July I received an invitation from Dama (Damatjo Magic) to visit her Homestead region of Dutch Coast, and I’m embarrassed to say it’s taken a better part of a month for me to take her up on the offer.

The majority of the region is offered as a largely public, low-lying sandy island, dotted with birch, eucalyptus, oak and aspen, the upper reaches of the island (such as they are), carpeted with grass and flowers, providing spaces for the local sheep to graze.

I say the “majority” of the island is open to the public, because there is a private house on the south side, sitting on a large deck and exhibiting something of a Tuscan style to it.

This is one of two private residences in the region, the other sitting on a little island tucked into the south-west corner of the region and which is, I believe, Dama’s private home.

Outside of these, two other buildings are to be found on the main island, both of which appear to be open to the public. I’m not 100% sure on this, but I didn’t see any privacy notices associated with either.

The Landing Point sits towards the east side of the island, just above the eastern beach as it runs north-to-south, dotted with places to sit – including a beach shack and a small pier. Arcing around to the southern side of the island, the sands become separated from the sea by rocks in the run towards the private house mentioned above.

To the north, the beach passes around the larger of the two houses which appear open to the public. From here the sands carry on to the second beach house, where rocks once again separate the sand from the sea as the coast runs along the west side of the region and back towards the private house.

The rocks may look desolate, but they are home for a pod of seals that have chosen them as a place to bask in the sun.

Such is the design of the island that exploration is a simple matter of wandering on foot and appreciating the landscape and wildlife. There are plenty of places for sitting and passing the time for those who so wish, and there are a lot of little details to be appreciated throughout.

Easy on the eyes, with a sunset style of EEP settings and rounded-out by a subtle soundscape, Dutch Coast is an easy, gentle and calming visit. My thanks to Dama for the invitation!

SLurl Detail

• Dutch Coast (Nevaeh’s Rest, rated Moderate)