Category: Reviews

A labour of love that was created during a time of healing and personal growth. It symbolizes new beginnings and hopes for a better future. The destination is open for all to enjoy and is the perfect place to relax alone or with a loved one.

– SL Destination Guide entry for Anyas Awakening

I was led to Anyas Awakening after reading the above description within the Destination Guide recently; it struck me as so heartfelt that I had to pay a visit – and found a setting that is utterly engaging in its mix of natural beauty, mystique and fantasy.

Occupying a Homestead region, Anyas Awakening appears to sit under a night-time setting (or at least, that’s how I found it during separate visits each lasting a couple of hours apiece, promoting me to use my preferred daytime setting for the photos seen here). The landing point lies to the north of the region where a large gazebo sits within a forest glade. A note card giver lies between it and the archway leading to the rest of the setting, although at the time of my visits, it was not responding to being touched.

The trees around the landing point give the first hint as to the wooded nature of the rest of the region. A path runs down under the arch of the landing point to where it joins a trail crossing the region in a north-east / south-west orientation. Across this trail from the landing zone’s path there rise a set of steps leading up to a raised glade sitting at the base of high cliffs.

Running due south, the glade ends in another set of steps offering the way to where the ruins of a church stand, and aged courtyard to one side and a paved path that turns east to where a bridge spans the waters at the edge of the main island to reach a smaller one that serenely floats above the water, another place of worship or celebration that carries a unique human / elven mix that makes it an attractive destination.

Whilst it may once have been a place of worship, the church now looks to be used as a place of calm retreat and music; a garden of peace and calm where doves and deer have gathered. A piano sits within the ruins as a haven for butterflies, while candles reflect their light in a polished mirror.

More ruins lie within the mid-level glade below the old church and also atop a rise at the north-east end of the main trail, where they can be reached by a further set of steps.

These latter ruins also contain a sense of peace and retreat, a swing hanging from one of the stone arches facing the carved figure for the forest goddess. Her form can also be found at the south-west of the trail, where she stands over the waters of a pool fed from falls that drop from a horseshoe curtain of cliffs.

Within this simple description there is much more waiting to be found; from swings to seats to walks among the trees, while statues and carved figures, together with lights strung within the branches of shrubs and trees add to the setting’s mystique. Wherever one roams, the woods are rich in the sound of bird song, while deer keep an eye on all the comings and goings and the sound of piano music drifts on the breeze from the church (five options are available from the piano, but perhaps the most well suited piece in Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata).

I’ve no idea quite what Anya experienced that led her to create Anyas Awakening – and I’m not about to pry; knowing isn’t important. What matters is the fact that the setting she has created offers a most serene and refreshing retreat, rich in detail and form, with opportunities for photography aplenty. For those wanting to spend time in quiet contemplation, reflection or simply regathering their wits, I can think of no better place in which to do so.

SLurl Details

• Anyas Awakening (Palila, rated Moderate)

My first introduction to the work of Hera (zee9 – then known as Kora) came getting on for a decade ago, when I first visited Venexia and Goatswood, two separate builds developed for role-play. At the time, both were popular spots for visitors, with Goatswood possibly the more popular by virtue of its more general setting.  However, both departed Second Life in 2015 and while Venexia has reappeared from time to time since then, I think I’m right in saying Goatswood has largely been absent the grid. At least until now.

As pointed out to me by Cube Republic, Goatswood is now back (for a time at least), sharing Hera’s region with an updated version of her Whitby build (which I wrote about in October 2021 (see Visiting Dracula’s Whitby in Second Life), which I hope to get to in the next few days; for now I want to focus on Goatswood.

Welcome to Goatswood

Well it is that time again when I get the call of the wild and must return to Goatswood 🙂 . It is a virtual Victorian Gothic novel [and] was always my favourite region of all the ones we created for RP 10 or so years ago. For me it had a real heart and soul that the others lacked; many people passed through it and made homes there. The role play was IMHO as good as it gets. This version is very different as there is no game set up, but I feel that for me this version is better in many ways I hope you like what you find.

Hera (zee9)

Set in the period 1860 – 1900, Hera describes the village as being somewhere in the Midlands of England – although I always felt it to be closer to the Cotswolds, something perhaps referenced in the fact that Hera modelled the basic design of Goatswood on Castle Combe, Wiltshire. It was developed specific for easy-going role-play set within that era, and while that may not be central to this current iteration, there is little doubt that Goatswood very much retains the heart and soul of the original.

As is common with Hera’s recent builds, Whitby and Goatwood share a common landing point, both being on the same region. However, for this iteration of the builds, the landing point has also undergone a change, now having about it a touch of Harry Potter, presented as it is as a railway station with two steam trains are drawn up to the platforms. The red train to the right (when looking at them) offers a journey to Whitby, while the green train calls at Goatswood. Just click on the carriage through the open door to be transferred to the required destination.

Those who recall the original Goatswood may well recognise elements of this version – the railway station, the Roebuck Coach House, the church – but these have some subtle difference within them. The Roebuck, for example, now has a grand carving of a stag above the main door, while the church no longer has a steeple atop its tower. These, together with other changes to the setting that allow this iteration of Goatswood to stand apart from its namesake as a quiet independent setting, rather than an mere copy.

One of the major attractions of the original Goatswood was the care with which it had been built; there was a real sense of place in the way the village and its surroundings had been put together. This is also present within the new iteration. Anyone familiar with the Cotswolds or, more broadly, the counties of Oxfordshire,  Worcestershire, or Warwickshire as a whole will realise the beauty of Hera’s build richly replicates the beauty of the countryside through those counties.

Exploring the region is something for which a good deal of time should be apportioned. While many of the houses may be shells, there is nevertheless a richness of detail awaiting discovery along the paths of the village and along the gardens. Those buildings – such as a Roebuck Coach House, the church and manor house, plus a couple of places outside of the village itself (which I’ll leave to you to find 😉 ) – do have interiors waiting discovery.

The setting also retains much of the mystery of the role-play that formed a part of it – including a couple of places I confess I don’t remember, which is not to say they weren’t present back in 2013/14, when I made my original visit. While these may not be present to encourage role-play this time around (Hera requests anyone wanting to more than explore and take photos contact her first), they nevertheless further help bring the overall mystique of the village to life once more.

Goatswood is the story I never got around to writing, about a place that never existed, where I would have loved to have lived. It is a world full of haunted places, Gothic folk tales and shadowy occult mysteries. It is set in a time when attitudes were just beginning to change due to advances in science and technology. And yet this advance caused a counter reaction in many, who tried to revive older folk traditions and beliefs in Magic.

In the countryside most people still carried on as they had done for hundreds of years. They still retained a strong belief in natural magic, folk tales and herbal remedies, and yet they had their feet planted firmly in the reality of a hard working life on the land. A really great example of this can be seen in the recent television miniseries “The Living and the dead”.

– Hera (zee9)

Now I am an acknowledged “Hera fan” and so am obviously naturally drawn to her work. However, if you have never seen one of her regions before, or if you have never had the opportunity to appreciate Goatswood, then I urge you to take the opportunity to do so now. It is one of the great classics of Second Life.

SLurl Details

• Goatswood / Whitby Landing Point (Cloud Lake, rated Adult)

It’s been some 18 months since I last dropped into Whimberly, the homestead region held by Staubi Reilig (Engelsstaub), so given the fact the last time I visited it was in the autumn of 2020 and we’re now in springtime, I thought I should hop back and have a wander once more.

Once again, the region sits within a ring of mountains and offers a mix of gentle lowlands and rugged low hills. To the north-east the lowlands hold a broad meadow, rich in yellow alirium, ringed by a dirt track. It sits as the widest point of the island, the rest of the landscape curled around a finger of water that reached inward to its centre.

Waterfalls tumble from some of the higher ground to the east into what may have once been a pool of water all on is own, but which has broken out to the south and north to meet waters that may have once been a deep inlet to the west, to leave the centre of the region as a slender ribbon of land reached by a pair of humpbacked bridges.

South and west, the landscape forms the more rugged parts of the setting, a path climbing away from the landing point and the field to run over the top of the waterfalls to pass a hilltop cabin before dipping down to a roll through a bowl of land to either reach a watery terrace below the cabin, or offer a route on south around the region, both paths watched over by deer.

Take the path on around the southern side of the land, and it will eventually bring you to another cabin sitting at the end of a tree-lined walk. But before getting to it, there is the option to take a right run and cross the waters via one of the dainty bridges and reach the middle island. Here people can enjoy tea on a deck extended out over the water or cuddle in the neighbouring rowing boat, or pass on a little further to where a more formal picnic can be enjoyed, together with time on the swings behind the blanket – just don’t upset the rabbits!

A second bridge allows people to cross back to the north-east finger of hills that border the field and landing point, offering a coastal walk to where the region’s “land office” is tucked away, complete with coffee on offer outside and a path back to the field and the landing point.

The cabin to the south-west is perhaps the most substantial building in the setting, being a mix of stone and wood. One of Cory Edo’s distinctive designs, it looks out to the west and a shingle-and-rock beach that has a small  bay of its own as the land runs northward once more between open waters and those flowing outwards from the middle of the region.

Both of the main cabins are cosily furnished for those looking for a temporary retreat and sit-down / cuddle, each with its own outdoor spaces – the watery terrace notes earlier and, for the southern cabin, a little coastal area below the house, complete with a pair of chairs for enjoying the view.

Those who continue north along the peninsula extending away from the southern cabin will find another place to sit out on a little boat moored next to a rickety pier and beyond it, through a cut between two rugged hills, a little hut set out for fishing (which a little chipmunk appears to be enjoying!) and a chance for some hearty stew or some eggs whilst appreciating the view back over the water to the slender middle island.

As ever, Whimberly is again rich in details awaiting discovery, with lots of opportunities for photography, all rounded-out by a super soundscape. It thus retains its reputation as once of SL’s ever-popular public regions in which to spend time.

SLurl Details

• Whimberly (rated: Moderate)