Category: Reviews

It All Starts With A Smile, Kaelyn Alecto’s Homestead region, has been a regular Second Life destination for me since 2013. My last trip there was in June 2016, when Caitlyn and I enjoyed the tropical summer beauty of the region. But the year has moved on since then, and with autumn now upon those of us in the northern hemisphere, It All Starts With a Smile has transformed itself to suit the season, making a return visit very much in order.

The land lays under a mantle of autumnal colours: yellow and brown leaves cover the ground, whilst those on boughs have turned ochre in preparation for their own spiral down to the grass and tracks below.  Even the red hues of wooden barns and cabins add a feeling of the shortening days and winter’s approach as they sit under a suitably beige sky.

It All Starts With A Smile – click any image for full size

From the landing point, visitors have a choice of routes to be followed – around a small central lake, or up into the low hills to the east and north, dusty tracks pointing the way. Either route will take you past cottages, barns and little cabins, while the track around the lake presents opportunities to wander a little further, out over low wooden walkways spanning an arc of water to connect to a trio of little islands to the west and south, each joined to the next by walkways of their own.

All of the cottages and cabins are open to the public, and each has been comfortably appointed, encouraging visitors to tarry for a time under their roofs. More places to sit and ponder / spend time with a loved one can be found outside as well, with lots of little spots scattered across the region, be they in the backs of wagons or old pick-up trucks, offered by blankets spread on the ground or on a pier, up on platforms or rocking gently within rowing boats moored on the waters. For those seeking a little fun, bumper boats can be played on the lake, whilst thirsts can be quenched at the bar-in-the-barn alongside the landing point.

It All Starts With A Smile

As is always the case with Kaelyn’s designs for It All Starts… this autumn look is highly photogenic and lends itself naturally to many different windlight settings – I opted to go with a variation on an Annan Adored preset for the middle two images offered here.  Those wishing to rez props for their photography can do so by joining the region’s group at the landing point,

With goats calling from the hills, birds singing in the trees and horse grazing near the lake as dogs bark and puppies yap, autumn at It All Starts With a Smile is very much a living thing, and somewhere in which time and troubles can be forgotten; a place where the slant of sunlight through a canopy of autumn leaves to dapple a path below, reminds us that while summer has now passed, it will return again.

It All Starts With A Smile

Should you enjoy your visit, do please consider a donation towards It All Start’s  continued existence, via one of the tip jars offered across the region.

SLurl Details

• It All Starts With A Smile (Heavenly Groove; rated: Moderate)

I recently received an invitation from Patti Peregrine to visit her quarter region holding at Serena Pirates Wells, called Vecchi Amici (“Old Friends”) Winery. As I’m familiar with Patti’s work from her time at Hestium I where she worked with my friend Boudicca Amat (and which you can read about here),  I made it a point to hop across to take a look as soon as time allowed.

Currently featured as at Editor’s Pick in the Destination Guide Vecchi Amici is a simply done but delightfully eye-catching corner of Tuscany brought to life in Second Life by someone with an eye for layout and ambience. And for those who enjoy their wine (/me moves her glass out of sight), it is just the spot to while away an afternoon.

Located atop a gentle slope on the north-east side of the region, Vecchi Amici presents a small, active vineyard before which sit a little orchard (so is cider also produced here?). A path meanders through a little grove of trees, passing the vines on one side and a large pond on the other, as it winds its way up to a converted villa.

Fronted by a low stone wall and a line of fir trees and with walled gardens shouldering it on either side, the villa offers visitors a comfortable place to sit and relax, with a small café area to one side of its large, single room and comfortable chairs and sofa on the other. Outside, water splashes in a fountain, and a bench seat is shaded by a young maple tree. A small terrace to one side of the villa offers a swing seat and access to one of the walled gardens, where butterflies weave patterns over the flowers and wooden benches offer further places to sit. The garden to the other side of the villa offers another pleasing mix of flowers, benches, butterflies and – for the hungry – a little afternoon tea set out on a dainty table.

Those with a taste for wine may well be waylaid on their way up the villa by opportunities to sample the local produce either from the bottle or – if it is ready – straight from the tap of an ageing barrel. Just across the path, the pond offers a little retreat where samples can be enjoyed while watching the local swans and dear.

Small and simple it might first appear, but there is an elegance to Vecchi Amici which more than lives up to its name; a visit is like a return to a familiar old friend of a place; there’s a refined, aged fell to the villa, and the setting lends itself to photography. Should you enjoy your visit, do please consider a donation towards the vineyard’s continued presence in Second Life.

SLurl Details

• Vecchi Amici (Serena Pirate Wells; rated: Moderate)