Category: Reviews

Field of Dreams / L’intangible – click any image for full size

Update: Field of Dreams  / L’intangible have closed. SLurls have therefore been removed from this article.

“I love creating landscapes and dreaming inside,” Iska (sablina) says of herself. Anyone who has visited one of her creations will know that her love of landscaping and her dreaming give rise to some incredible environments in Second Life.

Take Field of Dreams, her homestead region for example, which Caitlyn and I recently visited. It is nothing short of stepping into a dream of yesteryear and visiting a place rooted in years gone by. Not centuries ago, but a time just a few decades ago, the world seemed much smaller, simpler, friendlier; when power and telephony wires were carried overhead by stout wooden poles marching along the sides of roads and tracks, when farming and cultivating the land was a way of life, not an industry.

Field of Dreams / L’intangible

Presenting an eclectic mix of housing styles, Field of Dreams – together with its southern neighbour, L’intangible (held by Sighvatr Crowbone (Worthaboutapig), but also designed by Iska) – presents a marvellously rural environment filled with rustic charm, which could exist almost anywhere in the world. For me, and no doubt aided by the sim surround bordering the two regions,  I was put in minds of Scotland, the Mediterranean aspects of the villas sitting in L’intangible notwithstanding.

Both regions should be explored, rather than described, so rather than offer a travelogue style piece, I’ll endeavour to give you a flavour of things. From the landing point on the northern extreme of Field of Dreams, visitors have a choice of dirt tracks to follow, offering routes around and though the land, passing the slopes of hills held back by high stone walls, passing between land and sea, and pointing the way to houses and shops.

Field of Dreams / L’intangible

What appears to be a private abode also sits on a headland to the north of the region, otherwise everything appears open to visitors. At one point, steps lead up the side of a hill and past terraced grape vines to an old farm-house, in another, herons patrol the water between the shore and a little summer-house topped island. Further south, a stone-built house sits between a boulangerie and an empty store, windows covered by paper. All three face the river dividing Field of Dreams from L’intangible over a rough cobbled terrace.

Two bridges and a set of stepping-stones span the river. However, we would advise the use of the stepping-stones or taking a short flight over the water to reach L’intangible; both of the bridges appear to be phantom and result in getting dunked if used. Once in L’intangible, the windlight changes to something perhaps a little more Mediterranean in feel, framing the Tuscan styled villas sitting alongside the river, but there is no mistaking the region is paired with Field of Dreams.

Field of Dreams / L’intangible

From the front of the villas, a dirt track winds through the farmlands to a decidedly odd little pub sharing one of the three fingers of land forming the western and southern edges of the region with a lighthouse. Sheep and goats gaze outside of the pub, while out on the water a fishing boat chugs its way towards a stone quay sitting below the lighthouse.

The middle of these three fingers, reach by another dirt track leading away from the villas and between tended fields, is home to an astonishing trailer house which could well be every child’s dreams of the ideal home. Before the track reaches a path leading up to the trailer house, it is intercepted by a set of stone steps cutting through a  stone retaining wall. These present a route up to the last of the three fingers of land: a massive rocky plateau, stepping its way into the sky.

Field of Dreams / L’intangible

A Path winds its way around the tallest part of this great upthrust, which rises sharply our of the water on one side, but forms broad grassy steps descending to a beach on the other. Never reaching the summit, the path offers those following it an exercising walk, but the views it offers across both regions more than the effort worthwhile.

Finished with a subtle, natural soundscape, this is a remarkable pairing of two regions to create one of the more unique vistas to be found in Second Life. Field of Dreams and L’inangible have been beautifully intertwined in the landscape they present, giving a very real sense that you are really on an island amidst islands. A must-see destination.

Field of Dreams / L’intangible

Spring Spirit – click any image for full size

Spring Spirit is a homestead region designed by xxStanxx (xxStanilasxx) and Soffy Ronwood. Offered to bloggers, photographers and lovers of nature as a place to visit and enjoy, it is another true delight.

Visitors arrive on a small grassy area bordered on one side by the imposing bulk of a gallery accessed via a small courtyard, and hemmed on two sides by steep-sided hills. Cats and dogs roam this  open space before the gallery’s walls, the cats in particular fascinated by two tanks of koi carp. A series of large square flagstones form a broad path leading away from the entrance to the gallery, inviting visitors to follow.

Spring Spirit

Passing between an aged Japanese maple and a smaller but equally bent cheery blossom tree – both of which give the first hint of the region’s far eastern influence – the path take you down to the water’s edge and under a natural arch of rock, to reveal Spring Spirit’s secret in all it beauty, a bench seat beside the path allowing you to sit down and take it all in.

A ring of hills surrounds a flooded basin, a narrow neck on the west side providing access to the sea, guarded by the bulk of an ancient Chinese junk. Within the basin, which is fed by waterfalls tumbling down the rocky lower slopes of the surrounding hills, sit three Ikoi (“rest”) houses, each occupying a wooden pontoon. Between them, and linking them to the north and south shores of the basin is a pattern of wooden walkways. These in turn surround the square of a zen garden, complete with a pond, bridge, and a bench for contemplation, all guarded by a magnificent stone dragon.

Spring Spirit

Each of the Ikoi houses offers a place of rest and refreshment – be it food, comfortable cushions or a massage. A fourth house sits at the water’s edge, the round tub of a ofuro inside, lily petals floating in its water. This little bathhouse is reached by turning off the path from the gallery at the point where it meets the wooden board walk leading out to the other three houses and slipping under the drooping arms of a weeping willow.

As well as giving access to the bathhouse, this route also offers a way up to the broad grassy ridge running around the hollow of the basin. Here a path winds its way past pond, over bridges spanning water channels fed and ending in waterfalls, and under the shade of trees. Arcing around the curve of this great bowl, the path along this ridge provides access to lookout points, places to sit or dance, and a way back down to the water’s edge on the north side of the region. Here, more steps pass under a Torri gate and point the way back up onto the surrounding hills, where there is more to be discovered, while a wooden board walk allows you to return to the Ikoi houses if you prefer.

Spring Spirit

Spring Spirit is a beautiful design, perfectly drawing on Japanese and Chinese influences to create a balanced whole. It also mirrors something of an oriental aesthetic in its overall layout. From the circular form of the basin, through the to placement of the Ikoi houses and the pattern of wooden walkways connecting them, to the central positioning of the zen garden, there is an elegant harmony about the entire design.

There is a lot to see and enjoy, from time spent in the Ikoi houses, through dancing or spotting all of the wildlife scattered across both land and water – we particularly enjoyed spotting the herons scattered around strategic points like sentinels keeping a watchful eye on things – to simply sitting and relaxing. For those who enjoy photography, spring Spirit is very photogenic and has a dedicated Flickr pool, complete with the opportunity to have images posted there displayed in the region’s gallery.

Spring Spirit

SLurl Details

• Spring Spirit (Dalaran, rated:  Moderate)