Category: Reviews

As my last wander in Second Life took me to remote Gaeta 1 (see: A LemonCliff café in Second Life), I decided to stay with the Mainland theme for my next bout of meandering, travelling across Second Life’s map from north to south to pay a visit to Jeogeot and a small parcel of land sitting just off Route 9 toward that continent’s southern coastline. It is a place perhaps easy to miss as you travel along the highway, just a pair of iron gates under a stone arch itself set into a high wall spanning the gap between high granite blocks on the south side of the road. However, it hides a little treasure.

Behind the gates, and occupying the greater part of a 6,400 sq metre parcel is Journey Garden, a charming setting created by Kes Evergarden Teech (Kestrel Evergarden), and offered under her Journey Magazine brand. And when I say charming, I mean precisely that.

Beyond the gates, a path gently winds across the roughly rectangular gardens, the granite blocks continuing on around the setting to neatly fence it in without being obviously oppressive or enclosing.

This main path leads the way past some of the setting’s major features as it makes it way to the southern extreme and the offices of Journey Magazine. A second path doubles back on the first just a few short metres from the gates, winding back to where steps cut through the grass to climb up to wide grassy ledge overlooking a sheltered pond. A bench has been added to a fountain and pool occupying the ledge, making it a perfect retreat for those wanting a cuddle or simply watch the play of ripples over the water.

A second shoulder of low rock sits across the pond, the main path curling gently past its rocky foot. Here lies a further little place to sit, this one talking the form of three hanging seats suspended from the beams of a pergola. However, getting up to them might at first seem to be less than obvious, given the sheer faces on the rock on which the pergola sits – but there is a way. A little slope rises on the side of the outcrop nearest the pond, offering a relatively easy climb up to the top, the grassy path passing a small wooden deck built out over the pond as they do so.

Between the pergola-topped rock and the magazine’s office sits a picnic area and live music space, reached via a short path and steps sitting alongside the garden’s café, a place where refreshments might be enjoyed together with a quiet sit-down. I’m not sure how often live events might be held on the little outdoor stage –  but they are mentioned as occurring in the garden’s About Land description.

This is a place of serenity and photogenic retreat, the one oddity within it sitting back towards the gates, and clearly visible to anyone entering the garden. Set back from the main path at the end of a short walk along loosely placed paving stones is a bus-cum-trailer home which, like the garden it sits within, appears to have been allowed to grow almost completely organically.

The trailer sits as a place which is strangely bohemian whilst also carrying a hint of dark magic. The latter point is added to by the presence of a deer spirit, standing like some Dark Herne behind it. Inside, however, the trailer house is oddly cosy, even with the further hints of magic. However, its presence is not entirely out of place within the garden, as it speaks to Kes’ sense of humour, something which can also be seen in her profile: professional cannibal & existential dread specialist … and on Wednesdays, we play D&D.

Journey Garden is not the only place to be visited along this stretch of Route 9 – right next door, for example, is the Brumby Park Conservatory, another peaceful retreat, created and run by Envy (Envy Renard). However, it is perhaps, a place to be covered in a future piece in this blog; for now, I’ll leave you visit Journey Garden for yourself, and with the SLurl.

SLurl Details

• Journey Garden (Ungnyo, rated Moderate)

Of all the Second Life continents, Gaeta 1 is perhaps the oddest. located off the north coast Corsica, it sits isolated, alone and unfinished, having only a west coast, and partial coasts to the north and south before it ends abruptly as one travels eastwards, as if someone got bored mid-way through laying down its regions and wandered off to find a sandwich – then forget where they left the continent.

The smallest of the Mainland continents with roughly 140 regions to its name, it is also the most sparsely populated – although this is not the result of its small size; rather, it is because much of the land remains either owned by Linden Lab or simply undeveloped.

This is not to say it is without its charms. Along the west coast, for example, the Lastness Marina, sitting at one end of one of the continent’s two paved public footpaths. Here, visitors can drop into the local lighthouse, rez a boat and take to the waters along Gaeta 1’s navigable coast.  Or, if preferred visitors can pop next door and enjoy a sojourn at Lily Cloud’s LemonCliff beach bar and café.

Occupying almost 6,000 square metres of coastal land, LemonCliff is a delightful setting, offering a mix of outdoor and indoor setting, the latter taking the form of a ranch-style villa converted into a café sitting above a small beach front and within a its own garden space, the low surrounding walls forming a parapet as they look down on the beach and a small car park.

With a central hallway cutting through it from front to back, the café is neatly split into two wings. To one side and with shuttered windows, sits the café proper, offering coffee and smoothies with a choice of cakes and fresh lemon juice. Across the hall sits a comfortable saloon, a place suitable for afternoon tea at the right time of day, and in the evenings as a retreat where wine and aperitifs might be enjoyed, the windows to the front overlooking a small patio, and to the rear they provide a glimpse of the semi-wild garden.

A broad terrace parallels the rear walls of the café, passing through this garden to give access to the café from the car park, and also to a garden pergola and a raised patio and seating area to the rear of the coffee bar where beverages can be enjoyed under the shade of parasols.

Also to the front of the café is a table set for a little cheese and wine tasting, whilst steps run down to the beach and what looks to have been a cobble-topped wharf sitting at the waterfront -although the tide appears to have retreated long enough ago to leave a stretch of dry beach between the wharf and the sea, allowing the cobbles to become the home of a Greedy Greedy table.

Bracketed to one side by falls tumbling into a small channel running into the open water and a deck built out over the water on the other, the beach offers a view out over the open ocean to the west, and a means to enjoy the setting sun. Meanwhile, the deck sits as a place for cocktails and a little crooning / dancing.

Sitting alongside the marina and a small coastal residential area, LemonCliff beach bar and café is a charming and easy-going visit – and when you’ve enjoyed its welcome, there’s always an opportunity for boating along the coast or a walk along the winding public path as it meanders north and east.

SLurl Details

• LemonCliff beach bar and café (Chantilly, rated Moderate)

I had not intended to write about two fantasy / magical places in Second Life one after the other, however, after visiting Xanadu Forest (see: The mystical magic of Xanadu Forest in Second Life), I found that a trip to LauneMeo’s wonderful environments, this time to visit Luane’s Magical World, her most recent creation on her Homestead region, Le Monde Magique.

Luane has a well-deserved reputation for producing engaging, romantic and photogenic environments – and that is the case with Magical Worlds, a place where dragons and alicorns and albino elephants wander the shallow waters under the watchful eyes of giant translucent tubers and silvan trees and fae folk flits and sit upon plants and under the shade of trees in green and pink blossoms rising from a lush carpet of grass.

This is a place of serene beauty, a garden of many faces and many spaces, the first all awaiting discovery, the second all offering places in which to retreat and spend time. The primary landmass forms a circular island sitting in the south-east quarter of of the region. Home to the landing point as it sits overlooking crystal waters bounded on their far side by the silvered wetlands.

While the waters are protected by transparent surfaces making them walkable, to maintain the illusion of the setting, easiest way across the water is to take the ice0like stones as they form a path around the water’s edge and along the wetlands – although beware the odd alicorn also wandering the path.

To describe this setting is really an exercise in futility; it more than speaks for itself. Just be sure to take the time to seek out everything awaiting to be found here – there is likely to be more than a casual wander and camming around might reveal. As such, I don’t plan to say more here; instead I’ll simply leave some further images to offer a shallow reflection of Luane’s creativity in the hope they will encourage you to go and see for yourself. You are unlikely to be disappointed.

 

 

SLurl Details

• Luane’s Magical World (Le Monde Magique, rated Moderate)