Category: Reviews

In April 2021, I took a trip on Zany Zen’s superb narrow-gauge railway as it charts its way through north-west Jeogeot (see: Letting off steam with Zany Zen Railway in Second Life). The results of the trip led to a short series on some of the narrow-gauge railways in Second Life (see: A Ride on the Valkyrie and Climbing a Mountain in Second Life and GLTSL 3: Dreamshire Village, Second Life).

The Zany Zen runs from the little coastal setting of Little Coverston to Somdari. In doing so, it runs through a total of seven settlements, all of which have come together to form the Welsh-themed Seogyeoshire, modelled after a traditional county of  the UK and centred on the county town of Seogyeo, which forms the official mid-point of the Zen’s route. The result is a truly engaging, picturesque setting that captures the scenic beauty of rural Welsh and (dare I say it), English counties bordering Wales.

The seven villages and towns of Seogyeoshire comprise Little Coverston and Brigbymoorside to the north on the Gaori coast, Middle Claydon, Seogyeo Town itself, Verney Junction, Bempton and the delightfully named Little Framerate (which is anything but 🙂 ). These flow one to the next through landscaped countryside on either side of the Zany Zen, managed by the local community as overseen by the local town and parish councillors (aka Seogyeoshire’s admins).

As the largest of the population centres, I focused much of my visit which gave birth to this article on Seogyeo Town and its immediate surroundings – including Claydon House and its parklands – although some of the images herein are taken from other parts of the county, so if you want to truly experience the county, do make sure you visit it!

The place to start explorations of the town is the local square – the target of the town’s landing point. Here, overlooked by a figure on horseback (who is, for reasons unknown wearing a pair of motorcycle goggles!), visitors can receive a map of the county which highlights the points of interest awaiting discovery.

This map demonstrates the care with which the community at Seogyeoshire maintains the overarching theme of presenting a touch of Wales / Britain: the map is clearly modelled after those produced by Ordnance Survey (OS), the national mapping agency for Great Britain, and the first such agency to be established (dating back to 1747).

The attention to detail continues with the use of recognisably “British” street name signs (which, given this is a corner of Wales present names in both English and Welsh), road traffic signs and road markings, the use of Belisha beacons at public road crossings,  very British public rubbish bins, and so on. The humour is typically subtle and easy-to-miss unless you happen to be from these shores. I wonder how many visiting the town get the joke of the local OP-CO food store, or appreciate the dry humour behind the “Grimsby Would We Really Miss It?” election poster (in almost-Conservative-blue!) or recognise the intentional irony in the naming of Long Street.

Seogyeo Town and Seogyeoshire as a whole have a sense of age and history common to the majority of rural areas and older towns of Britain: modern buildings rub shoulders with those dating back hundreds of years; the local parish church sits well above the rest of the town to remind the people of its presence and to come to worship, its graveyard speaking to the long history of settlement here. Sites of antiquity are carefully marked and preserved, and more “modern” institutions have attempted to fit quietly within the community rather than setting themselves aside. For example, there’s the post office cuddled against the local pub; the local police station tucking itself quietly inside the converted ground floor of a house, the upper floor of which offering the officer and their family a small apartment-style home.

This sense of history enfolds a length of canal which appears to have once reach all the way to the base of the hill on which the large bulk of a brewery sits. Whilst its western end has been built over and its eastern end converted into a pond and public space commemorated Queen Elizabeth II, the canal perhaps once brought grain and hops to the brewery in the early years of the industrial revolution, before steam trains robbed the longboats of their trade.
Incidentally, the brewery speaks to the manner in which some of the Seogyeo community’s neighbours have entered into the spirit of things. Whilst resembling a building born of the industrial revolution, it is in fact a façade which allows the Buildables SL building supplies store. Thus, it allows the store to blend into the Seogyeoshire’s general ambience rather than painfully clashing with it.

Across the road from the pond marking one end of the canal sits a much broader lake. This in turn marks the boundary of public parklands running up to the impressive Georgian-style estate of Claydon House. Backed by extensive coaching houses and stables, Claydon (although still under construction at the time of my visit), boasts its own large family chapel, formal gardens and lawns which all appear to be open to the public.

A further beauty of Seogyeoshire is the manner in which towns and villages have been blended with the landscape in a manner reflective of rural Britian. There are no hard lines, just a gentle blurring of fields available for crops or grazing and marked by dry stone walls with farmhouses, tended trees at the roadside, an increase of road signs – including those bearing the name of the town / village, and the arrival of a village itself which rises and then gently folds itself back into the surrounding fields and landscape once more. Here and there, ancient towers, gatehouses and the remnants of fortifications which also speak to Welsh-English history.

Outside of the Zany Zen railway, the roads running through the county offer the most obvious means of getting around and seeing all that is available; however, if walking doesn’t appeal, there are bicycle rezzers scattered around (one at the town square landing point at Seogyeo, for example), offering an entirely comfortable means of spending a pleasant time exploring.

One thing I would say here when it comes to exploring is this. There are a number of individual EEP environments scatter through the setting. If you want to avoid the time of day transitions they create, do remember to apply your own preferred EEP asset to your avatar so you can maintain consistent environment lighting throughout your meanderings.

Now featured in the Destination Guide, Seogyeoshire makes for a thoroughly engaging visit. And with that said, I’ll simply point you in the direction of Seogyeo, and say, “Croeso i Sirol Seogyeo!”

SLurl Details

• Seogyeo Town and Seogyeoshire (Seogyeo, Gaori, etc, all rated Moderate)

It’s been some six years since I had the pleasure to visit NorderNey, the always photogenic region held and designed by Jacky Macpherson, my last visit having been in 2017 (see: A return to NorderNey in Second Life). One reason for this is that it has actually been closed for a while – I’m not sure precisely how long – and Jacky has been spending some of her time on other projects, including designing regions for others, including Vally Lavender (see: Time at Valium Creek in Second Life, from 2020)  and VUK Store (see: A visit to VUK in Second Life, from 2019), as well as her own (see: A Nutmeg Getaway in Second Life, again from 2020).

So when Shawn Shakespeare informed me Jacky was back with a “Nord”-related build, I decided to leap over and take a look recently and at a time when I really should have been a-bed! NordShore, a Homestead region design, may not be a direct continuation of NorderNey, but it does have that titular link, and there is a styling about it that does bring to mind past iterations of NorderNey. It is also a build carrying a soft echo of Gateway – Nutmeg, linked to above, although it remains entirely unique to itself.

For inspiration with this design, Jacky turned to the oft gentle, oft rugged county of Cornwall, England; a place that can be both a holidaymaker and tourist magnet and also a place of unspoiled, remote-seeming beauty. It is these latter aspects of Cornwall Jacky has used to fire her imagination, sprinkling her ideas with little Tuscan touches; and while she specifically mentions Cornwall’s coastline as her point of inspiration, elements of the build – to me – also carry hints of the county’s moorlands.

Presented as a low island with a rugged, rocky shoreline for the most part, rising from the surrounding sea and caught under a summer’s sky entirely in keeping with those often see around Britain’s coast, it is not hard to think of NordShore as being a little place sitting just off the shoreline of south-west England; far enough away from mainland to offer a sense of escape, yet close enough to make living here less of a hardship than in might otherwise be the case.

Along its grassy back, the island is home to a lighthouse, a small cottage and a barn. It’s possible – if not likely – the cottage may have once been the home of a lighthouse keeper, being separated from it by a short track as the lighthouse stands on a small headland at the south-eastern tip of the island. However, it doesn’t appear as if the cottage has been maintained in its original role, instead having the feel of a place now given over to being a home for those caring for the island’s horses and sheep, perhaps as a result of the lighthouse being converted for automated operation at some point.

Whatever the reason, the cottage is a cosy place which appears to have been extended and refaced – or perhaps entirely rebuilt – to give it a distinctly Tuscan look and feel. Inside, a wood-burning stove offer warmth in winter, the armchairs before it sitting with a game of backgammon between them – although the cat occupying one of the chairs doesn’t appear to be too interested in it. A large, comfortable sofa sits across the room, guarding the doors leading to the kitchen where another kitty appears determined to get some milk – possibly more than it bargained for, if not careful!

A track runs from the east side of the cottage, past steps running down to a little cove, and then onwards to a working barn built in the same style as the cottage. Behind and slightly above the barn the back of the island is matted with tough wild grass, bursts of wild flowers and shrubs, here and there punched through by rocky outcrops.  It is here, with the fenced enclosure for sheep, the further dusty tracks and the smattering of trees, that I found myself thinking of parts of Bodmin Moor than anywhere along Cornwall’s coast.

Which is not to say the northern end of the island looks out-of-place or different to the southern half. Far from it; this is a setting that flows together as a singular whole; but it does speak to Jacky’s power to fire the imaginations of visitors to see things that are both in keeping with her vision but which carry it in, perhaps, other directions.

With sheep and horses grazing and gulls wheeling in the sky whilst cormorants sit on the rocky shore and eyeing the rolling tide for any fish carried too close to land and thus making for a quick, swooping snack, the island also features other visitors to Cornwall’s shores: seals. These appear to have laid claim to the northern end of the island’s shore, perhaps feeling it offers seclusion and safely from unwanted approaches thanks to the surrounding rocks.

A single path slips gently down between said rocks to reach one of their basking grounds, a route which means they have more than ample time to slip into the sea should their peace be disturbed. Not that they need be disturbed: those seeking a dip in the sea can do so via both the east and west sides of the island, each of which is marked by rough beaches that slide easily into the waters before them, and which can be easily reached by following the local trails as the cross the island’s back.

Finished with a gentle soundscape and – needless to say – lots of opportunities for photography, NordShore is a delight to visit.

SLurl Details

• NordShore (Echo Mountain, rated Moderate)

As my last wander in Second Life took me to remote Gaeta 1 (see: A LemonCliff café in Second Life), I decided to stay with the Mainland theme for my next bout of meandering, travelling across Second Life’s map from north to south to pay a visit to Jeogeot and a small parcel of land sitting just off Route 9 toward that continent’s southern coastline. It is a place perhaps easy to miss as you travel along the highway, just a pair of iron gates under a stone arch itself set into a high wall spanning the gap between high granite blocks on the south side of the road. However, it hides a little treasure.

Behind the gates, and occupying the greater part of a 6,400 sq metre parcel is Journey Garden, a charming setting created by Kes Evergarden Teech (Kestrel Evergarden), and offered under her Journey Magazine brand. And when I say charming, I mean precisely that.

Beyond the gates, a path gently winds across the roughly rectangular gardens, the granite blocks continuing on around the setting to neatly fence it in without being obviously oppressive or enclosing.

This main path leads the way past some of the setting’s major features as it makes it way to the southern extreme and the offices of Journey Magazine. A second path doubles back on the first just a few short metres from the gates, winding back to where steps cut through the grass to climb up to wide grassy ledge overlooking a sheltered pond. A bench has been added to a fountain and pool occupying the ledge, making it a perfect retreat for those wanting a cuddle or simply watch the play of ripples over the water.

A second shoulder of low rock sits across the pond, the main path curling gently past its rocky foot. Here lies a further little place to sit, this one talking the form of three hanging seats suspended from the beams of a pergola. However, getting up to them might at first seem to be less than obvious, given the sheer faces on the rock on which the pergola sits – but there is a way. A little slope rises on the side of the outcrop nearest the pond, offering a relatively easy climb up to the top, the grassy path passing a small wooden deck built out over the pond as they do so.

Between the pergola-topped rock and the magazine’s office sits a picnic area and live music space, reached via a short path and steps sitting alongside the garden’s café, a place where refreshments might be enjoyed together with a quiet sit-down. I’m not sure how often live events might be held on the little outdoor stage –  but they are mentioned as occurring in the garden’s About Land description.

This is a place of serenity and photogenic retreat, the one oddity within it sitting back towards the gates, and clearly visible to anyone entering the garden. Set back from the main path at the end of a short walk along loosely placed paving stones is a bus-cum-trailer home which, like the garden it sits within, appears to have been allowed to grow almost completely organically.

The trailer sits as a place which is strangely bohemian whilst also carrying a hint of dark magic. The latter point is added to by the presence of a deer spirit, standing like some Dark Herne behind it. Inside, however, the trailer house is oddly cosy, even with the further hints of magic. However, its presence is not entirely out of place within the garden, as it speaks to Kes’ sense of humour, something which can also be seen in her profile: professional cannibal & existential dread specialist … and on Wednesdays, we play D&D.

Journey Garden is not the only place to be visited along this stretch of Route 9 – right next door, for example, is the Brumby Park Conservatory, another peaceful retreat, created and run by Envy (Envy Renard). However, it is perhaps, a place to be covered in a future piece in this blog; for now, I’ll leave you visit Journey Garden for yourself, and with the SLurl.

SLurl Details

• Journey Garden (Ungnyo, rated Moderate)