Category: Reviews

Summers Wind – click any image for full size

I’ve recently been drawn back to travelling to places in Second Life I’ve not visited for a while, and one of the places that sprang to mind – even though it has only been a couple of years since I was last there – is Summers Wind. The hub of Mexi Lane’s three “Wind” regions, the others two being Winters Wind and Autumns Wind, both of which adjoin it, but are given to private residential properties.

The major thing that drew me to Summers Wind the first time around was the extraordinary manner in which landscape designer Rumegusc Altamura has blended landscape and architecture in the public regions of the region to create something truly memorable: a great plateau of rock rises from the middle of the island. And I’m delighted to say that, but for a few changes, it is still very much the centrepiece of the design, with the region as a whole still a marvellous and eye-catching visit.

Summers Wind

Pitted and sculpted into to great sweeps and curves as if by wind and water, the plateau is worlds away from the usual tables of rock seen in Second Life. At the foot of that massive upthrust of land is a series of deep caverns, each fronted by marvellous Graeco-Roman architecture: ornate lintels supported by great Doric style columns. All bar one of the caverns is home to a small store, the exception being offered as a conference space.

Running northwards from the southern coast of the region, the plateau splits Summers Wind roughly in two. On its west side are private rental properties – so please keep this in mind when visiting. To the east (and atop the plateau) are the public areas, albeit it with a couple of private residences.

Summers Wind

Nestled against the eastern coast sits the Café des Arts. Maintaining Mexi’s patronage of the arts in Second Life – she has supported the arts in SL for most of her in-world time, most notably through her former arts region, MIC- Imagin@rium – the café regularly hosts informal exhibitions set out along its wooden decks, and at the time of my return, it featured a display of physical world art by Italian artist Giancarlo Petrini.

Just to the north of the café are little bumper boats that can be use to explore the waterways around and through all three of the Wind isles – but again, do please remember Winters Wind and autumn’s Wind are primarily residential in nature. These can be accessed overland via a stone footbridge in the north-east corner of Summers Wind, which links it to Winters Wind, with more private residences scattered long the north shore of Summers Wind to face Winters Wind across the intervening water.

Summers Wind

When we first came to Summers Wind, there was a glorious underground club space beneath the north reach of the great plateau. While the entrance remains, the club has now gone (sadly, as the design was exceptionally well done), a spa now replacing it. There was also a way up to the top of the plateau – a winding trail and steps, which also seems to have been removed at some point. Now, so far as I can tell, the way up to the top of the plateau is via the signpost near the landing point. Clicking on the various boards on it indicating the various public locations – including the cliff-top conservatory – will deliver a landmark to the destination, allowing visitors to teleport to their desired destination.

In writing about Summers Wind back in 2016, I used a stanza from Summer Wind, the 1965 classic by Johnny Mercer and made famous by Frank Sinatra. I did so both because the name of the region put me in mind of the song, and because the song’s source, the German Der Sommerwind (Bradtke and Meier) uses the Sirocco wind of the Mediterranean as a metaphor, which fits with the wind-sculpted look of Summers Wind’s great plateau. Given how little has changed with the region, I still find the song as applicable today as I did back then.

Summers Wind

Which is another way of saying Summers Wind remains a stunning and beautiful design that is a delight to visit, explore and spend time within, containing its own unique look and a special sense of romance.

SLurl Details

• Summers Wind (Summers Wind, rated: Moderate)

In my last couple of Exploring Second Life articles I’ve referenced re-visiting regions that have existed in-world without necessarily changing much over time. These posts prompted Miro Collas, another seasoned SLexplorer to remind me about Chakryn Forest, a place that has been in existence for getting on towards a decade.

A collaborative design between region holder Bettina Tizzy, landscape artist Andrek Lowell and Eshi Otawara, Chakryn Forest is a place that has changed little over the years since my last visit, back in 2013, and it was pretty well established even then. As such, it sits as something of a time capsule in SL; claimed in 2008, it has little in the way of mesh within it, retaining instead, and “old world”, so to speak, charm.

As the name suggests, this is a forest realm, a place where gigantic redwood trees tower into the sky, spawned from megaprims spun by Zwagoth Klaar at a time when prims were limited to a humbling 10x10x10 metres. Their presence alone will set the bells of memory ringing for those of us who remember working in prims back before mesh arrived and we saw the size limit leap to 64m on a side…

There are no real paths here – it’s a forest after all – and so explorers need to find their own way from the landing point through the trees to discover what lay within, be it the exotic plants, the swooping, dancing sprites or the little camp sites and the more hidden places to sit. The supplied windlight is a little basic, so I do suggest photographers experiment – the images here were taken with a variety of settings, rather than using the default.

For those in the mood, there are a number of quests to be found scattered through the forest and initiated by the likes of Elementals, Fae folk and Hobbits. All require finding objects and returning them to the start point of each quest in order to receive a reward. I confess to not having tried any this time around, so I assume all are in working order. When exploring, beaware that there is a secret place hidden away, lit by candles and offering another glimpse back into the history of SL; hanging decorative nets “woven” from textured cylindrical prims.

With the right windlight, Chakryn Forest has an ethereal feel to it; there is a sense of mystery between the trunks of the great trees, while the exotic flowers scattered about and the floating (in the air and on the water) Elementals give the forest an other-worldly feel. Animals are not in evidence, which is a good thing, given any wanderers would likely not handle the terrain with its slopes and folds while static animals probably wouldn’t look right. However, there is a rich sound scape to go with the setting, so have local sounds enabled when visiting.

Like the tress within it, Chakryn Forest is enduring; old it may well be in terms of component elements, but it is still an engaging visit. More particularly, its age makes it very much a part of SL’s growing history; so when you visit, do please consider making a donation towards its continuance through one of the red flowers scattered across the forest floor.

SL Details

• Chakryn Forest (Chakryn, rated: Moderate)

Black Kite – click any image for full size

In writing about the closure of Namaste and Kamigama recently (see here for more), I made mention of the fact that with all the “new” regions and ever-changing region designs in Second Life, it is sometimes easy to forget the more long-lived locations in-world that are open to public visit.

Those comments put me in mind of a region I first visited nigh-on six years ago, and to which I haven’t written about in the last four. So, I decided to heed my own suggestion and hop over to it and spend a little time there.

Black Kite

Black Kite is the home of Cloudy (Theblackcloud Oh), and it has been open to the public for as long as I can remember it being in Second Life. Over the years it has undergone changes here and there, but by-and-large it has always remained a tranquil, water-focused setting, and this remains true today.

This is a place where azure waters gently flow under a matching sky broken by lazily drifting clouds of white. The ankle-deep water is dotted with wooden decks and board walks, some connected one to another, others sitting as isolated islands to be reached by gentle wading, short steps offering a way up onto them.

Black Kite

The decks are home to assorted points of interest – a couple are the location of the 8f8 store, another offers the chance to rest alongside the Moon, a third features a little open-air café (one of the elements of Black Kite that tends to remain as other elements come and go), while others offer places to simply sit and while away the time.

Watching over this is the region’s signature kite, caught on a mystical wind and aided in its oversight by the strange bobble-topped trees that rise from the waters alongside platforms and around the landing point. Throughout all of this are invitations to throw aside worries and care and just be: “Do what you want”, Celebrate”, “Nothing really matters”, “Dream” … Even “Go fly a kite”, painted on the water beneath the floating kite, reads more as an invitation than it’s more usual sentiment.

Black Kite

For those who have previously visited, the 8f8 store, the kite, the trees, the café and the water tower will all be reminders of Black Kite’s endurance in Second Life. So to are the bottles and jars scattered around, offering those who want to meditate in peace and quiet – and behind glass – the ability to do so. But so too are the subtle changes to be found on repeat visits spaced a little time apart from one another.

In my case, and on this trip, these changes took the form of a tower of shipping containers I can’t recall having seen before, and the arrival of assorted “cuteness” around the region – the “ice cream bunnies” at the café, for example, or the plushie birds. Small changes, perhaps, but enough to keep the camera and eyes roving, and the feet wandering through the region to discover what else might be.

Black Kite

Cloudy does still keep a private residence in the north-east corner of the region, and this is barred to public entry – but the rest of the region remains as open and as free to wander as ever. In fact, one of the joys of Black Kite always has been the fact it is uncluttered. Board walk, decks, platforms – all are scattered across the region with sufficient water between them as to engender among those using them a sense of being apart from others, free to relax in your own little space on one of the decks even when others may be a-visiting or enjoying a break for themselves.

Given that so many places occupying private islands come and go with (sometimes alarming) frequency, that Black Kite remains in-world, open to the public and asking so little in return, for more than six years now, having originally been claimed in March 2012, and remains under its original “ownership” is pretty remarkable. As such, I’m glad I’ve made the time to not only revisit for the first time in several years, but also to write about it once more.  And as with my two previous posts, I’ll again suggest that if you’ve never visited Black Kite before, and wish to see somewhere just that little bit different, you jump over and take a look for yourselves.

Black Kite

SLurl Details

Black Kite (Black Kite, rated: Moderate)