Category: Reviews

Update, March 15th: Mickey contacted me to let me know that after eight years and now retired, he has had to let Sheepville go, and he has downsized to a half Homestead. For further details, see: A Trip to Seagull Rock in Second Life. 

This blog has been in its current iteration “Living in a Modemworld” for nigh-on 12 years, and during some PC housecleaning related to it, I surprised myself by realising that in that time I’ve actually visited and written about 968 unique public locations in Second Life as a part of my Exploring Second Life Series, for a total of 1,334 articles (given I’ve visited certain places more than once).

Many of these articles relate to private regions that can remain for years as a time, undergoing seasonal changes and complete re-dressing, encouraging multiple re-visits. Others are more temporal, perhaps lasting only a modest handful of months at most. Some, however, endure, marking the passing of the years with smaller scale changes that allow them to retain their core looks and setting.

One of the latter is Micky Woodget’s Sheepville, a place I originally visited way back in 2013. It’s relocated since then, but I’m pleased to say that a visit Caitlyn and I made to it earlier in their year reveals it has not lost any of its unique charm, nor its curious mixing of eras.

The landing point is located in the village of Sheepville, a place that feels as if it stands at the confluence of strands of time. In looks, it resembles a small English village that has witnessed the passage of the centuries. The buildings are distinctively Tudor in style (although referred to as medieval). Nothing unusual in this, to be sure. However the local populace are presented in clothing that in places seems to be rooted in medieval times and in others has a distinctly Victorian lean. Meanwhile, the local pubs appear to brace a modern era, with their respective outdoor seating and the promise of fish and chips at a very modern price.

Thus, wandering around the village’s cobbled square, rich in the colour of spring / summer flowers, it is possible to feel as if you’re moving between historical periods simply by stepping into our out of a shop or building, as if the generations of history here have all become entwined in a single period instant of time. Is this the result of a natural phenomena, or the mischievous intervention of the leprechaun-like characters in St. Patrick’s green who are dotted around the setting? That’s up to you to decide – but the fact is, this mix of periods as subtle and works, giving the village an added layer of charm.

Just beyond the village is a small lake where canoes can be taken out on the water – one of a number of activities available in the region for people to enjoy. Both it and the village are overlooked by a large Norman / Tudor castle sitting atop the highlands to the north-east. This offers a clear destination for explorers, and has an interesting amount to see within, complete with a hint of Arthurian legend, as well as clear references to the Tudor era.

Paths and tracks run outwards from the village, offering routes around the region and up to the castle. These pass by outlying houses and cabins, as least one of which appears to be a private home, and the others may be available for rent (the use to be the case with Sheepville in the past, although we found no evidence it still is). So do be aware of the potential for trespass where these are furnished.

One of the charms about Sheepville is that while it makes use of mesh, it has about it a nostalgic feel of being “classic” Second Life. This is in part due the presence of the prim-style puppets that inhabit the village and the design of various elements used to dress the setting, such as the log benches found throughout, some of which retain the use of pose balls (with other poseballs scattered around the region). All of this further assists the sensation that Sheepville is a place genuinely caught in time.

In the eight years since my original visit to Sheepville, the setting has changed in a gentle manner that allows it to retain its core looks. It offers a gentle place to explore, complete with its own little quirks within a rural, semi-pastoral setting. In this it is remains an engaging place to visit.

SLurl Details

• Sheepville (Apolonia, rated Moderate)

I’ve recently received several suggestions / invitations for region visits, which I’m trying to work my way through in some semblance of order – thank you to everyone who sends them by IM, note card or via the blog itself.

One of the locations passed to me a couple of weeks back was for ChicLand. It came via Morgana Carter after I wrote about Poison Rouge (see: Sampling some Poison Rouge in Second Life), with a note accompanying it to explain that like that region, ChicLand is both the home of a store – Lilo Denimore’s ChicChica  (I’m using the region’s formal designation in this piece to differentiate it from the store) – and a landscaped public setting open to visitors, so might I be interested in taking a look?

A Full region, Chicland is a setting of multiple parts. The store itself is located in the sky, reached via a teleport in the from of a large arrow at the main landing point. As such, it does not intrude into the multi-faceted landscape that flows outwards from the landing point to offer a rich assortment of locations and ideas to explore, appreciate and photograph.

At the foot of the steps leading down from the landing point is a broad French  boulevard, lined by the façades of tall town houses and places of business, vehicles parked at the roadside and under the shade of the richly blossoming trees that march down either side of the road.  Blossom petals drift on the breeze that’s gently funnelled by the height of the houses, the fluttering of the petals attracting the attention of a local cat. Static NPCs provide further depth to the scene, the mother and daughter in front of the ice cream kiosk particularly grabbing attention thanks to the upturns cone on the path nearby its former topping now oozing over the concrete suggesting a slight accident has prompted a return to the kiosk to stem the resultant upset.

The road winds on to pass under the single span of an elevated walkway (that it goes nowhere makes no difference, it acts as a unique form of gateway) to arrive at a fresh produce market that offers a view across the region whilst remaining separated from it by the surrounding wrought iron fence; to reach the landscape beyond the fence it is necessary to either jump it or, more easily, re-trace steps and find an alternative route – thus encouraging exploration.

One of these alternate routes reveals the cleverness in parts of the design: one of the façades of town houses is double-sided. On the one side it forms an aspect of the street scene first encountered on leaving the landing point, whilst on the other it offers another row of of house fronts overlooking a marvellous walled garden space (one of two in the region, in fact, the other being alongside the produce market). The use of the façade in this way thus gives the impression the urban aspect of the region is much larger than its actual footprint.

The walled garden here offers a lot to take in, including a path through to the rest of the region – although you do have to pick your way through the flowers growing around the borders of the garden space in order to reach the gates. Beyond the garden sits open countryside through which a stream meanders and which is watched over on the far side by a Tuscan style farmhouse sitting atop a low butte of rock and reached by a rough park.

A dusty track winds across this open landscape from the bridge connecting it with the town’s garden. This passes along the side of an orchard that straddles the path up to the farmhouse, and points the way to more places to discover: a little pergola where tea from a samovar might be enjoyed with some sweet desserts, and also a vine-enshrouded garden bar where a more varied selection of refreshments might be had. There’s also a playground and a Romany caravan to be enjoyed along the way, each offering views across the stream to two eye-catching terrariums.

From the end of one arm of this dusty track, a grassy trail points the way onwards to the lee of the rocky table on which the farm house is perched. It leads to a cosy vineyard where the freshly decanted produce of vine and fermentation might be sampled in comfort.

Lightly furnished and sitting slightly above a walled courtyard, the farmhouse offers another retreat – although how to reach it from the courtyard may initially have you guessing, given it appears to sit on a sheer-sided block of rock with no visible steps cut into it. But check around to one of the sides, and you’ll find a steep, grassy slope provides the means to scramble up to the house. The courtyard itself is home to a little vegetable garden and cows and geese, both of which make it a little noisy, but for those who do not mind and farmyard noises, further freshly press grape juice and nibbles at a table are awaiting enjoyment.

All of this and several more elements I’ve not mentioned in the piece make ChicLand a joy to explore. Each of these elements stands both as a part of and a part from, the whole, offering both a continuous setting and a series of individual vignettes that can uniquely catch the eye and / or camera lens. However, what I found particularly attractive were all the little touches awaiting discovery that give the region a sense of life.

There’s the mother / daughter vignette at the ice cream kiosk I mentioned earlier, complete with dropped cone. It is balanced by a woman holding up a small boy, both of them looking to the same point, inviting the suggestion they are posing for a photograph. There are also little touches of humour awaiting discovery – and I do mean little! – as anyone who spots grandpa gnome, his audience and his clearly less-than-happy wife will doubtless agree!

Rich in detail throughout whilst avoiding overly taxing the viewer, ChicLand has much by which to commend itself to the casual visitor and the Second Life explorer alike, with the teleport up to the store offering the chance to mix a little shopping with exploration and photography.

Slurl Details

• ChicLand (rated: Moderate)

A tweet from Second Life blogger and photographer Rig Torok concerning one of his recent region outings set a bell clanging in the back of my head when it showed up in my time line. It featured an image of, and URL to, a place called The Divide,  was sure we’d visited in the not-to-distant past, but which which failed to show up on my listed of blogged destinations.

That prompted me to rifle through Windows Explorer, and sure enough, there was a folder from December 2019 with a couple of photos of the setting, some rough notes  – and nothing else; so we’d clearly visited, but for whatever reason, had either never fully explored or I’d simply forgotten to go back for photos and write-up thoughts for a post. Hopefully, this piece will therefore make up for things.

The work of Xen (Xenia Nordberg) and Coriel (Coriel7766), and sitting on a sky platform over a Full private region that leverages the Land Impact bonus, The Divide is described as a study of contrasts, an expression of duality inspired by the works of Hayao Miyazaki.

For those unfamiliar with Miyazaki, he is a Japanese Anime artist, writer, director and producer of animated films. He is internationally regarded as one of the accomplished film-makers and story tellers in the history of animation. His work is characterised by a range of recurrent themes, including humanity’s relationship with nature and technology, elements of which are evident within The Divide, both directly and indirectly.

Humanity’s relationship with nature is perhaps most clearly shown in the divide within the setting: to one side, and containing the landing point, sits a very Japanese theme town or village. To the other lies a sinuous, climbing valley, the separator between the two a narrow river channel spanned by bridges.

On the one hand, these two settings speak of both more prevalent aspect of our relationship with nature in our standing apart from it in our towns and cities of concrete and glass whilst constraining its presence to parks and gardens. On the other it represents our underlying need to embrace nature and the escape it can offer in its open spaces and amongst its flora and fauna.

The town itself is a marvellously compact affair that packs a lot into it, which  admittedly can make moving through it a little heavy going thanks to things like texture loads; I found it easier to disable shadow rendering entirely other than when actually taking snapshots, just to get the textures to load in a little faster and to offer smoother walking / camming. Streets run between an assorted collection of buildings, bunting and lanterns stretched overhead as if for a festival, a subway station hinting at a connection with places further afield whilst hiding a surprise.

While a good number of the town’s buildings are simple façades, others offer interiors to be explored, adding depth to the setting’s sense of place. Little side gardens may also await discovery, again harking back to the idea of our relationship with nature in the manner they offer retreats from the hustle of the street life just a few metres away. An interesting curio sits on the west side of the town: a mushroom-like rock rising above the surrounding buildings, topped by an ancient ruin that is itself home to a able-top D&D style game.

The human / technology reference is also much in evidence throughout, from the very obvious – all the neon signage, the vehicles, and so on – to the more subtle (anyone spot the reference to a certain film franchise focused on technology?). There’s also the pointers to the speed of modern life such as the “fast food” kiosks for grabbing a bite while on the move, countered by little temple-like places where life can be put on pause and more spiritual matters addressed.

Across the water, the valley and parkland offers the means to escape and explore and presents an interesting mix of themes and ideas. There are Chinese elements such as the of pandas in their bamboo copse, for example, and more studies in our relationship with nature, notably typified by the little shrines along the path that climbs up into the hills.

To the south of the setting, beyond a bamboo curtain sits a ramshackle home. Reached via a concrete bridge, it again echoes the ideals of relationship: humans living within nature, with our relationship with technology represented through the use of a converted shipping container for the house – the same kind of contain that is used to transport all our little electronic and computerised gizmos around the globe aboard massive ships guided by satellites circling the world high overhead.

Some of the landscaping along the valley and its climbs could perhaps do with a little tidying up, but as long as you follow the paths and steps, you shouldn’t have too much of an issue in finding your way around. Make your way all the way to the top of the steps that wind up through the head of the valley, a zipline awaits to offer a faster way back down – just mind the trees on your way!

Rich in detail, expressive in design, The Divide presents a lot to be discovered and enjoyed. My thanks to Rig for the reminder.

Slurl Details

• The Divide (Radiator springs, rated Adult)