Category: Reviews

I recently received an invitation from William Gide to visit Oscarton Forest Park, a setting designed by William and his SL partner, Dekon Carter.

Comprising a number of parcels spanning two regions within the south-east of Heterocera, the park offers around a quarter of a region of a landscaped setting with something of a unique history.

The Park started life as a “COVID sanity project”, helping William – who designed the majority of the ground level elements – cope with lockdown by allowing him to exercise his creativity. Since then, the park has remained open as a public setting which visitors can use as a place to enjoy a sense of nature and recharge their batteries.

Given this, there are a number of distinct Landing Points to be found throughout the park. For the purposes of this piece, I’m going with the “main entrance”, so to speak, as it is here visitors can obtain a notecard with landmarks to the main hangouts within the setting.

Bordered by part of the SLRR to the west and a river gorge to the south, the latter spanned by a bridge leading to what I believe to be William and Dekon’s private home, the public park runs northward. Passing a vegetable garden, the landscape opens out to offer a choice of possible exploration routes, the clearest being the main path.

The latter sweeps out to the east side of the park, passing between two Chinese lion statues, the first of multiple pieces of sculpture awaiting discovery as one explores the park. In making its sweep, the footpath skirts the lower end of the forest, a copse of silver birch. However a trail also runs through the birch trees, almost doubling back on the main path to drop down to where a trail points to the north and west, winding through the forest proper.

The main footpath, meanwhile descends to where a bridge spans one of the parks streams, joining another path as it follows the bank of the stream northwards. Passing by way of a secluded cabin, this path eventually drops down to the setting’s camp site prior to making a sharp left turn to arrive at the octagonal pavilion.

This pavilion can also be reached via one of the many paths branching off from the second trail mentioned above, all of which pass various places to hang-out and also admire some of the large wood sculptures to be found among the trees.

The northern end of the park includes two newer elements. The first is the Oscarton Forest Café. Occupying a large building by Cory Edo, on its east side this overlooks one of the park’s bodies of water and the pavilion beyond. On its west side, the café offers a terrace with seating a view of any passing trains.

Steps lead down from the terrace to a stone footpath and walls forming a border to the park, looking like it may have been some form of ancient fortification. Tucked within a part of these works – which also run along the northernmost extent of the park – is the Oscarton Forest Park Reflection Cove, described as a place for meditation.

Also to be found within these walls is a Zen garden watched over by two large rune stones, whilst the woods in this northern extent of the park also hide the teleport platform up to the sky platform – but I’ll leave that for you to find.

Offered with a richness of detail, Oscarton Forest Park is an idyllic location, and for a first-time public build, is exceptionally pleasing to the eye and rich in opportunities for photography and for relaxing.

My thanks to William for the invitation to visit; I really enjoyed doing so.

SLurl Details

• Oscarton Forest Park (Dubia, rated Moderate)

In talking to Dema Fairport at the Content Creator’s User Group recently, I was reminded that it’s been six years since my last visit to her engaging, Adult-centric and richly landscaped region of Athenaeum (see The scenic glory of Athenaeum in Second Life).

Part of the reason for this is because the major parts of the region are well-established, and only subject to the most subtle of changes – which can made blogging a little difficult. Not that the region should change just for the sake of blog posts; it has scenic beauty which is captivating to both the eye and the camera which could so easily be lost with any large-scale changes.

That said, six years is a long time between visits, so I was keen to wander around once more just for my own interest; and because so much time has passed, I thought I’d offer another write-up for the benefit of those who might not be familiar with the region or its beauty.

The virtual home of the real life Carter/Johnson Library which is owned by Viola Johnson. The library is a collective history of various kinky communities who have chosen to live and love differently. Come explore the Museum and Photo Gallery, take a walk through the lands, or find a place with that special someone to enjoy some relaxing time together or some special kinky time. Photographers Welcome, please be respectful of all.

– Dema’s description of Athenaeum

The (to me) familiar elements within the setting comprise the Carter/Johnson Library, mentioned in Dema’s description, the manor house, the pool house, most of the major structures, including the main bridges and footpaths, and the overall lie of the land, cut through as it is bye channels and a river.

The Landing Point for the setting is on the west side of the region and takes the form of a deck built over the water and home to a café, which I understand from Dema is a new feature of the setting. This sits close the aforementioned Carter/Johnson Library buildings, which itself is worthy of some expansion.

Existing in the physical world, the Carter/Johnson Library and Collection, is a 501(c) (3) organisation founded by Carla Viola “Mama Vi” Johnson (September 9th, 1912 – January 31st, 2006). It forms a collective history of various communities who have chosen to live and love differently. The collection includes thousands of leather, fetish, S/m, kink and alternate sexuality books, magazines, posters, art and more, dating back to the 1700s and chartered to bring this history to the communities it serves.

It is the Library and Collection which supports Athenaeum within Second Life, with the Library within the region recreating of one of the Library’s physical world exhibitions charting the history of BDS and kink from the 1500s to modern times – and offering a glimpse of times early than the 1500s.

A short walk from the museum is a gallery devoted to the work of New York fetish photographer Darque. Also to be found in the plaza and gardens housing the library and gallery is a quiet outdoor seating area complete with playable chess and draughts (or checkers, if you prefer).

Eastwards from the museum and gallery, a cinder path rises into the region’s central uplands to join a broad bridge spanning a gorge to provide access to the manor house is it sits on a high plateau. For those who prefer, a grass trail leads up to where wooden cabins surrounded by tall pines overlooks the north coast beach. One of the two cabins offers a wooden stairway down to the beach, but another way to reach it is to head north from the landing point, following the signs to the camp site out on the north-west headland.

The manor house itself remains much as I originally found it in 2018, when I noted:

Within its rooms are leather arm chairs, great bookcases filled with tomes awaiting reading, fires in the hearths, bottles of port and cigar humidors on some tables, coffee and After Eight mints on others, and just the most subtle of hints as to some of the activities that might follow conversations in these rooms; activities which themselves might be enjoined in the rooms above, going by their décor.

– This blog, August 2018

Again surrounded by trees – Athenaeum is, among other things, a woodland haven – the manor house also features a terrace area for music events, with an adjacent pool. This terrace overlooks a precipitous drop on its west side and one of the region’s smaller islands, whilst on its north side it looks over the channel separating the manor’s high perch from the low-lying museum.

The plateau on which the manor house stations hides a secret. To be honest I didn’t work out how to get down to it and back, and resorted to cheating with a sit TP. I assume there is a hidden TP I missed. Another couple of places I don’t remember from previous visits. One was a smaller house sitting on an island to the south-east, is an outdoor ceremonial area one an island tucked into the north-east corner of the region.

Whether all of these are new additions since my last visit or not, I can’t say; six years is a long time; visits, and memory can play tricks. But that aside, Athenaeum is a richly engaging a beautifully put together region offering a lot to see and appreciate, regardless of one’s interest (or otherwise) in kink.

In fact, such is the overall low-key nature of the region’s BDSM elements, Athenaeum can be enjoyed without reference to it more adult nature, offering as it does a beautiful environment with multiple places to sit and pass the time, and plenty of opportunities for photography.

SLurl Details

• Athenaeum (rated Adult)

Purple Moon Ashes is a Full private region developed as a public space encompassing fantasy and magic, designed by Elguaje70 and DjDDB. It drew my attention after I noted it in the Destination Guide due to the use of items created by Elicio Ember, whom regulars to the pages will know, is both a close friend and a creator of elven-themed designs I never fail to find gorgeously attractive.

Surrounded by off-region hills, Purple Moon Ashes is a setting which becomes increasingly more attractive the longer one spends time within it – although I would note that the Shared Environment available at the time of my visit differed substantially from the EEP settings used in the Destination Guide entry for the region and – in my personal option – didn’t display the region at its best. This being the case, and after a little experimentation, I opted to use one of my personal “fallback” EEP settings for the photographs shown here.

It is a pleasure to invite you to explore this wonderful Purple Moon Ashes, a place where magic lives from the first moment you arrive; enjoy the dragon ride and the gondola ride. Come and discover how much more magic you can experience.

– Purple Moon Ashes About Land Description

The core of the region comprises a circular lake dominated by a central water / ruins feature which includes two large stone water serpents gushing water from their mouths. Three circular dance floors extend out over the lake from the surrounding largely circular, land enclosing the waters. Each of these platforms is placed roughly equidistantly around the circumference of the lake and each offers two points of access to the shallow waters, allowing visitors to walk to the central feature if they so wish.

Outside the lake, the land surrounding it offers multiple points of interest, all neatly linked by footpaths and flower trails.  The Landing Point sits on a plateau on the north-west quadrant of the region and is home to one of the teleport boards offering quick links to the major locations within the region (although I recommend using your pedal extremities to explore!) and the dragon ride mentioned in the About Land description. It also hides the region’s secrets below it – but I’ll leave it to you to discover the way into them 🙂 .

There are two ways down from the top of the plateau, each utilising elements created by Elicio. One runs gently down to the western side of the region, before a glass footpath directs explorers south and then east, where it is possible to climb the long finger of a rising promontory, which itself turns back to the north as it comes to the eastern side of the setting.

The second way down from the plateau is on its north side, passing by way of a large dance area build atop a smaller plateau of rock rising from the sea. Steps from here descend to join another glass path lain among the wildflowers as it travels eastwards to reach a large domed pavilion at it furthest extent, and beyond which the trail becomes one of grass and flowers.

It is this second route down from the plateau which offers one of the opportunities to take one of the region’s gondola tours (just to the left of the raise walkway from the last set if steps descending from the plateau). These tours are point-to-point, and so also allow visitors to reach specific destinations within the region. Boats are suitable for singles or couples, and sitting in a gondola will display a dialogue box of the destinations available from each embarkation point.

As each tour ends at the embarkation point for another, it is possible to use them in sequence to view the region, hopping from one boat to the next at each stop. It is via these gondolas that the narrow spit of land running along the north side of the region is best reached (“Forest Love”).

There is a good degree of repetition across the region in terms of statues and architecture – unicorns large and small, benches with statues, winged fairies spouting water, Elicio’s elven arches and glass walkways, stone gazebos with giant daisy-like places to sit within them, etc. These all work thematically and act as motifs for the region, offering opportunities for the imagination to invent suitable backstories for the setting.

Also to be found through the setting are multiple places to dance, including couples poseballs tucked away here and there as well as the more familiar dance systems hanging in the air over the more obvious dance locations. From the advertising I caught during my visit, I gather the region is also home to live music events. Details of these, I assume, are available through the local Group – but it appears this requires contacting either Elguaje70 or DjDDB in order to join.

With places to sit scattered throughout (including about the sail vessel and within the aforementioned caves), Purple Moon Ashes provides multiple reasons to not only explore, but also to relax and unwind within its borders. The local sounds are not intrusive, and the setting lends itself to a wide variety of EEP options.

In all, a visually engaging and charming visit.

SLurl Details

• Purple Moon Ashes (Purple Moon, rated Moderate)