Category: Reviews

Designed by Julia Dagger (JuliaTrouble) and occupying a Mainland sky platform The Redwoods offers people a chance to escape to a corner of Second Life devoted to nature in the form of a setting that might have been lifted from southern California’s Sequoia National Park.

It is a location that is exceptionally easy on the eye where, thanks to the design and the sound scape, it is possible to genuinely lose oneself in a sense of being deep within Nature’s realm. It’s also – on the surface at least – easy to explore; but as with many things in Second Life, actually holds a secret.

Tucked into the south-east corner of the setting and almost entirely ringed by cliffs, the landing point offers a map marking the the park and its trails. While in keeping with the sense of being within a national park, this map and the others like it aren’t really necessary, as the trails through the landscape are clearly and pleasantly laid out, complete with logs to form natural steps down and over the slopes and undulating ground.

A short distance from the landing point, the path divides, one arm running both north and west to where the lake sits, an open space within the the tall sequoia trees, both fed by and feeding the park’s streams. Around the lake’s shores can be found benches on which to sit, and a camp site tucked into the shade of the trees, while a boat and a deck offer over-the-water places to sit as well.

The second branch of the track runs along the edge of the stream that feeds into the lake, and which is in turn fed by waterfalls to the north-east. This stream largely splits the land in two, separating the main trails through the trees from the park’s lodge.

An expansive structure, reached by way of two bridges over the stream, the lodge offers indoor and outdoor seating and the kind of information counter one might expect in such a place. It’s a cosy place to rest and / or appreciate the local comings and goings and is overlooked by a small cabin sitting on a square block of rock. With no visible means of getting up to it, I assume the latter is a private retreat, rather than a further space for visitors to spend time, and so we didn’t investigate it further.

As noted above, the setting is easy on the eye and easy to explore, whether on foot or on the back of a wearable horse – but it does have a secret, one that is best found on foot. Tucked away completely out of sight is a little bar. Of an unusual design, you’ll have to search for it to find it, and I don’t want to give its location away. Suffice it to say, walk as far as you think you can, and then go through the precipitous curtain beyond the log camp – just mind the first step!

In days when we can too easily feel as if home life is closing in around us, and walls too close for comfort, The Redwoods offers a sense of pushing those walls back and presenting us with a chance to appreciate woodland walks and the sensations of witnessing sunlight through high branches, the call of clear flowing water always close by.

In short, it presents a sense of freedom and escape, whether you wander the trails, sit in one of the camp sites our tuck yourself away within a hammock under the trees, thus making it a perfect visit.

SLurl Details

• The Redwoods (Cha, rated Moderate)

Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens.

– The Greater Good, University of California, Berkeley

Modern life means we tend to always be on the go, both physically an mentality.  If we’re on on our way from something, we tend to hurrying to something else; if were not thinking about tomorrow, we’re reviewing yesterday; we have very little time in which we allow ourself to simply be in the now.

With the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic still raging around the world, even with the bright promise of vaccines and a growing confidence that it can at last be brought to ground and controlled, life has been and remains even more chaotic and stressful, both as we carry concerns about the pandemic and concerns for ourselves, our families and our income whilst also become impatient for a future where we can resume more “normal” lives.

Hence why perhaps now more than ever  we need the means to escape daily pressures and find room to simply be – and Second Life with all of its potential for freedom of expression, creativity and so on, can be an ideal channel through which we can do this. But even so, we all tend to spend our time in-world doing things and staying occupied; we rarely take a moment to be Mindful of ourselves, to be aware of what our bodies are experiencing and what we are thinking and feeling in the moment we are experiencing them.

It’s easy to stop noticing the world around us. It’s also easy to lose touch with the way our bodies are feeling and to end up living ‘in our heads’ – caught up in our thoughts without stopping to notice how those thoughts are driving our emotions and behaviour.

– Professor Mark Williams, Oxford Mindfulness Centre

The Centre for Mindfulness is an environment created within Second Life to help anyone who wishes to regain their sense of balance and self. The work of Cythe (Cytheria Teardrop) with the assistance of Anna Timmerman, the Centre has recently completed a relocation to a sky platform over Cythe’s Full region (which has the the added Private region LI bonus), to provide the complete experience for those wishing to re-centre themselves.

An important part of mindfulness is reconnecting with our bodies and the sensations they experience. This means waking up to the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the present moment. That might be something as simple as the feel of a banister as we walk upstairs.

– Professor Mark Williams, Oxford Mindfulness Centre

Ringed by mountains that suggest it might be located within the highlands of Japan or the mountains of Nepal or Tibet, the setting offers the ideal environment for those who wish to de-stress, either on their own or through scheduled events (details of which can be found on the Centre’s website and on the information board at the the in-world landing point).

In terms of its design, the platform is divided into a number of areas,  all of which can be reached via the landing point’s teleport station  or on foot – but I very much recommend the latter, as it presents far more of the location’s natural beauty. Located within a Zen Garden watched over by a seated Buddha, the landing point offers circular walks to be enjoyed in their own right as a means to lose oneself in the act of walking.

This garden also offers paths to two of the centre’s facilities  – the Soul Meet, within its walled garden, and the Peaceful Minds pavilion sitting over a pool of calming water. Both of these play host to events at the Centre – at the time of my second visit, a class in meditation was taking place within the pavilion, underlining the fact that whilst in the virtual realm the Centre is very much about our condition in the physical.

Another important part of mindfulness is an awareness of our thoughts and feelings as they happen moment to moment. It’s about allowing ourselves to see the present moment clearly. When we do that, it can positively change the way we see ourselves and our lives.

– Professor Mark Williams, Oxford Mindfulness Centre

Beyond the gardens, a bridge reaches out to a peak offering the opportunity to perform simple yoga exercises alongside your avatar at the Happy Stretch gazebo – just follow the information boards on the gazebo’s walls. The bridge also provides a view down over a crater-like lake. Reach via path, stair and walkway and sitting on the the waters of the lake is the Tranquillity Bath, where your avatar can rest and you can  learn about the restorative power of the Osen.

Across the ridge of the gardens and to the east, is a second body of water. Reached via a walk along the ridge and between tress, it is home to the Dreaming Buddha, it is a place where swan boats can be ridden in a perpetual circle while you turn your thoughts inward and in peace.

Also close to the landing point is the Coin Store. To encourage participation in the Centre’s activities, visitors can earn CfM coins and exchange them for selected items. While I’m not sure the idea of involvement for reward is entirely in keeping with a genuine desire to reach a state of Mindfulness, I do understand the reason for including it; Second Life has more than enough to distract the mind and keep it occupied, that having a means to entice return visits can only help with on-going participation.

With space to explore, room for centre staff and what looked to be additional facilities waiting to come on-stream together with a full schedule of events open for anyone to join in, The Mindfulness Centre has a lot offer open minds. My thanks to Malburns for pointing me towards it by way of The World of Yana.

SLurl Details and Link

• The Centre for Mindfulness (Niuka, rated Adult)
• Centre for mindfulness website

Land of Thor is possibly one of the most unusual and engaging realms we’ve visited in Second Life. Described as being “loosely based on Norse mythology”, we  found the region to be an engaging curio of exploration during the time of our first visit back in February 2018, whilst a recent return to visit one of the art galleries within the region see: Moni and Traci at Midgard Gallery in Second Life) gave rise to a desire to re-visit and explore once more. In doing so, we discovered that much has changed – and also remained somehow the same – greatly adding to the region’s appeal as a place to be explored.

Surrounded by mountains and itself a rugged domain with changes in elevation marked by great cliffs and domed hills which are home to, or guardians of, high tables of rock and land, the region can be somewhat divided into areas that take their name from Norse mythology: Niflheimr (“land of Mist or “world of the darkness”);  Álfheimr (“Land Of the Elves” or “Elfland”); Jötunheimr (the land of the Giants); Vanaheimr (“home of the Vanir“) Midgardr (“middle enclosure”or Earth) and Seidr Gallery, which I assume is a reference to seiðr, or old Norse magic.

A teleport system available at the landing point provides a quick means of jumping between these locations – but I would strongly suggest avoiding it; paths and stairs also interconnect almost the entire region and offer a far more rewarding means of seeing all that it has to offer, including the secrets that might otherwise remain hidden. I  should also note that for those wanting to eschew walking and teleport system, a dragon ride might also be taken to fly around the region (or you might try pulling Mjölnir from the rock in which it is partly embedded and whirling it around to fly from point to point – but good luck with that! 🙂 )..

Each of the realms noted above presents a different aspect of Land of Thor to enjoy, reflecting – at least in part – the realms from which they take their names.

For example, Álfheimr, lying to the north-east of the region remains unchanged since our original visit of three years ago – just as one might expect of a land that is home to ageless elves. With its garden-like setting (complete with somewhat Arthurian elements that add to the overall mysticism of the region) and its rather delightfully eclectic mix of ideas and objects, Álfheimr remains a place to relax as time seems to stand frozen, as indicated by the clocks with hands that never move, one of which has doves caught forever within a beat of their wings  hanging in the air above it, and the little trains that forever circle their tracks, never arriving at their destination.

Similarly, Jötunheimr sits on a high plateau and a tall peak to the south-east, marked by the presence of huge figures who – if I might borrow from a more modern mythology, that of Babylon 5 – appear in part as “giants in the playground”, disinterested in the little people who might roam the landscape, instead enjoying the views their high perches afford, and in the case of one, looking set to launch a Spitfire into the air (perhaps the ‘plane is a new airborne ride for the local Valkyrie? 🙂 ).

Midgardr, meanwhile, occupies the region’s lowlands, which are more extensive than you might think. A deep gorge cuts into the region from the south, presenting a sheltered bay in which a town has sprung up. But no abode of Vikings is this; with its large warehouse, brick-built shops, street lighting, bicycles and more, it is a thoroughly modern setting, albeit one watched over by whatever gods might dwell within the high castles above.

These lowlands also skirt the plateaus to offer paths around the water’s edge that may take visitors by way of streams and bridges to low-lying houses sitting at the water’s edge and the realm of Vanaheimr, or to the broad meadow of Niflheimr. It is here that – if not already found as a result of wandering feet and carefully prying eyes – a secret of the region is revealed: there is as much to be found underground as above it.

For beneath and within the high tables of rock and the peaks that in place rise from them are great caverns awaiting discovery. Admittedly, at the time of our visit, one of the – and the most obvious to spot, simply because it is still being worked on – sits under the cliffs to the north of Niflheimr, in the roots of the uplands that present more elements of the region to be appreciated, from gardens to  a coffee shop and summer houses an waterfalls. The other caverns are all homes to art galleries, one of which is fairly extensive and has secrets of its own to be revealed by careful explorers (make sure you follow all of the arrows!).

Dominating the region are two great castles, one of which was present at our last visit. Neither appears to be directly accessible, although they are connected one to another by their own teleport system (which includes a hidden nod to Asgard’s Bifrost) and a great elevated stone causeway. Given their isolated nature, I assume they are the private residences of Land of Thor’s designers, Thor (Anaadi) – who also holds the region – and Selim Noland.

I mentioned above that “almost” all of the public places within the region can be reached on foot as well as by the landing point teleport system. However, there is one exception, that of Seidr Gallery. This resides high in the sky over the region, thus requiring the use of the teleport in order to reach it. At the time of our visit, it was hosting art by みどり (Midori Rotaru), some of which can also be found within one of the ground-level gallery spaces.

Land of Thor is genuinely a place deserving of careful exploration as there is so much waiting to be found – not all of which I’ve covered here. It can place something of a load on a system when visiting, so a little juggling with settings might be required – but the rewards in doing so are more than worth it.

SLurl Details

• Land of Thor (Mirrors Edge, rated Adult)