Category: Reviews

Late in August we visited – on the recommendation of Miro Collas – Iniquity Constantine’s Homestead region of Summerland. At the time of our visit, Ini described the region as “an idyllic garden where the spirit may rest and rejuvenate,” offering a mix of “pagan, ritual, mythology, mythic … magic, runes, druid, nature, elemental, [and] familiars” in its elements.

These elements are apparent as soon as visitors arrive in the region: the landing point sits within a barn converted into a Wiccan / pagan centre where psychic readings are on offer, and the trappings of Wiccan and magical supplies and symbols are much in evidence.

Outside, a deck extends over coastal waters under a late summer sky as seagulls wheel around in search of a fishy meal. The deck offers place to sit and appreciate the view across the rest of the region and the surrounding (off-sim) hills. This view reveals that the region forms a semi-circle of small islands that form a horseshoe around what is – given the foaming waters – a shallow bay sitting over a broad shelf of rock.

One its western end, this horseshoe bay is watched over by the tall red finger of a lighthouse; at its eastern extent, it is mirrored by a set of horseshoe waterfalls that tumble from the cliffs of the highest island in the curved chain. It is these falls, visible through the haze that draw visitors around the side of the landing point barn to where a wooden bridge offers the way to the next island in the series.

Here lie the first ruins with pagan / druid elements: ancient statues, a broken henge of shaped stones around a hewn alter and reach via a stone arch. Beyond it, a second bridge connects to the tall island, the exploration of which can be split into two parts. Just across the bridge, a set of stone steps climb up the grassy shoulder of the island, while just to the left, through a gap in a broken wooden fence, a ladder offers the first part of a way down to where a shingle beach sits at the base of the island, presenting a path to a little beach house sitting on another deck built out over the waters.

At the top of the stone steps, the upper plateau of the island presents a hazy mix of the pastoral and the pagan / ancient. Horses graze on the long grass, shaded by the island’s woodlands, trees that help hide and disguise the ruins scattered beneath their boughs. These take several forms, including those of a chapel and a much more recent glass-and-metal pavilion that has been turned into a place of meditation.

A path winds across the grassy table of the island, offering a means to see most of the sights whilst pointing the way to where a rocky route drops down to another bridge and also an almost-cave or cavern. As well as providing a means to reach the last two islands in the chain, the low-lying grassy headland provides the means to reach a modern and comfortable orangery – a further place for visitors to sit and rest during a visit to the region.

The two remaining islands offer a further mix of trees, ruins and places to sit and rest or in meditation, all within the region’s sound scape that is, perhaps a little too dominated by the thunder of waterfalls. There is also a little roughness to some of the landscaping with floating bushes and candles here and there, together with some slight alpha issues (sadly common and often unavoidable when combining foliage and off-sim elements), but nothing that excessively gets in the way of appreciating the beauty of the setting, and which certainly don’t interfere with opportunities for photography. Images captured may be shared through the region’s Flickr group.

SLurl Details

• Summerland (Margarita Island, rated: Adult)

Update, November 2019: Frogmore has relocated to a full region. The SLurls in this piece have therefore been updated to point to that location. A review of the new region location is available here: Frogmore: more Swedish memories in Second Life.

Frogmore – or to give it its full name, Frogmore Gamla Stan (“Frogmore Old Town”), is a homestead region designed by Terry Fotherington (of {PAPPADO} – read more here and Kekeland  – read more here – fame) on behalf of region holder Bengta. The region’s design serves a very specific purpose, as Bengta explains:

Frogmore Gamla Stan is a memory of life as a child in Öregrund, Sweden. The air is filled with the scent of the sea, old fishing boats, and smoked herring. A simple life filled with love and laughter.

A quick check on Öregrund reveals it to be a small town (population 1,500-ish in 2010), on the Baltic coast of Sweden’s Uppsala County. It’s apparently a place that was largely ignored by Sweden’s 19th century industrialisation; other than bar iron passing through the town’s harbour en route to places like England, the town itself largely remained centred on fishing, although in the late 19th century it did became popular as a spa resort.

It is that history as a fishing town, as Bengta notes, that Frogmore draws a part of its inspiration, together with the rugged beauty of the Scandinavian coast, to form a wonderful little fishing hamlet clinging to a rugged coastal region / group of islands. Given that it is only inspired by childhood memories as visualised through the eyes of another, direct parallels between Frogmore’s look and Öregrund perhaps shouldn’t be made.

Instead, it is better to simply wander along the single, cinder-topped road, passing between brightly-painted wooden places of business and cabins (none of which are furnished within, to allow the focus to be on the landscaping and overall setting, to where steps climb upwards and more inland. The waterfront cabins and buildings are literally that: right on, and sometimes over, the water, with steps and moorings for rowing boats, nets drying as they hang from walls, and sofas and benches set on raised porches.

More houses and places of business can be found on the stepped shoulders of rock rising on the landward side of the road, and with a little care and scrambling, you can make your way to where a primitive log bridge spans a narrow watery gorge separating the two largest islands. This is worth taking, as it leads the way past a superb little rocky stream that tumbles down from one pool to another which, presumably has an opening somewhere under the cold-looking waters to allow the flow to continue on its way. Created using one of Alex Bader’s new Animated River Building Packs (see here and here), it really shows what can be achieved with what is  – to me – the best mesh river system available in SL.

Exploring the region can be both fun and a little frustrating. Fun, as there are little cinder trails to be found here and there, offering the way between rocks to cabins or down to little beaches and coves. Frustrating, because although there are a couple of paddle boat rezzers to be found on the different islands, the lie of the land means you can’t actually use them to get from the little town to the other islands or vice-versa, leaving flying the only alternative.

The other peculiarity I had with a visit was that on our first (exploratory) time in Frogmore, the region was backed by off-sim mountains. On my return for photos, these steadfastly refused to render (and I tried 3 different viewers and various tricks to try to force them to render). Hence why some of the shoots accompanying this article may be different to those of Frogmore you may have seen elsewhere. Chatting to a couple of other people on the region, I learned they were having similar issues between visits – sometimes the mountains would render, sometimes not.

But, mountains or no mountains, there is no doubting Frogmore’s beauty or its uniqueness among public regions, not just because of its appearance, but because of its founding inspiration and the “third-party”, so to speak, interpretation of that inspiration by the designer.

SLurl Details

• Frogmore (Frogmore, rated Adut)

Shawn Shakespeare suggested we make a further return visit to Lam Erin’s Cherishville over the weekend, noting it had been redesigned in readiness for autumn’s arrival in the northern hemisphere. So we hopped on the Second Life express and alighted at St. Bronxton Railway Station, a quaint little end-of-the-line station that is one of Cherishville’s many new features to capture the eye and the lens.

The region is now centred on a channel that cuts it neatly in two from east to north-west. With the stone-built banks topped by paved footpaths and spanned by a single bridge, the channel is bordered on either side by an assortment of buildings; so much so, that despite facing open water at either end, it has the look and feel of being the mouth of a small but navigable river, and the buildings on either side are the result of a estuary township, the people drawn here for the open seas and the opportunities for fishing and coastal commerce.

This little township is distinctly of two halves. The west bank of the river, which includes the landing point and the aforementioned railway station (set back from the river’s edge) has – to me at least – a very English feel to it. With the buildings crowding the waterfront, I was immediately put in mind of a small river estuary in Cornwall or Devon; the stone-built houses and shops speaking of a place that had in the past grown up as a result of commerce along the coast. In fact, such is the look to that side of the river, I wouldn’t have been surprised if during our visits, Aram Khachaturian’s Adagio from Spartacus welled up in the background as the Charlotte Rhodes hove into view, James Onedin at the helm (Yes, a (possibly obscure) British TV series reference thrown in as well!).

Across the stone bridge, the east side of the river has a more American look and feel to it: posters advertise Connecticut and New England lobster, Martha’s Vineyard gets a mention and the fuel prices are in USD. Even the wooden buildings have the look and feel of rural Americana.

But no matter what influences have been drawn into the design, both sides of the river have one thing in common – something also common to both sides of the Atlantic in the autumn: rain. To say this is coming down in buckets would be an understatement; for those so inclined, brollies, coats and wellies are the order of the day for a visit! Although truth be told, the rain (mesh elements places along the line of the river) add considerable atmosphere to the setting. It pounds the footpaths and board walks, given both a sheen that reflects lights (if you have ALM enabled!), while puddles set golden, red, orange and yellow leaves drifting under the influence of a gentle, rainy breeze.

Beyond the river and town, the land undulates in low, wooded hills or spread in flower-rich ground before dropping away to the water once more. A lighthouse raises a finger into the sky to the north-east, adding to the feel of this side of the river being  more American in setting, whilst on the west side, the land is cut in part by the tracks curving out from Bronxton Railway Station, whilst also easing its way to a shingle ribbon of coast looking south and out towards two smaller islands, each topped  by  a cabin.

These cabins appear to be open to the public – at the time of our visit, the larger was unfurnished as well. However, as there are no obvious means to reach either of them save by swimming / flying, we didn’t venture any closer than the beach to find out, as we didn’t want to invade any privacy should either be for private use.

Not that any visit really is necessary: there is more than enough to see and photograph around the river front town and immediately behind its rows of buildings without every need to cross the water to the smaller islands. There are also plenty of spots scattered around when sitting and passing the time can be enjoyed – particularly along that southern ribbon of beach.

There are admittedly one or two rough elements in the design. Some of these are somewhat down to the nature of the mesh beast – it’s possible in places to find yourself walking in raindrop splashes hovering at waist level. Others may well be because Lam is still tweaking the design – on my return run for photographs, he was shuffling buildings, sorting out hovering trees and carrying out some general furnishing.  Certainly, none of the is enough to completely spoil the setting or the autumnal feeling it imbues whilst wandering and exploring.

All told, another classic design from Lam, very different from its summer iteration (read here for more), but well in keeping with the upcoming seasonal change in the northern hemisphere (climate change allowing!), and very much worth the time to visit – as always, and photos welcome at the region’s Flickr group.

SLurl Details

• Cherishville (Villa Baldeney, rated: Moderate)