Tag: Closed

al Ridge – click any image for full size

Update: January 16th: Mineral Ridge has unfortunately closed.

In the 1930s, Mineral Ridge was once a wealthy, booming mining town, its fortune drawn from the precious secrets hidden within the rocks of the high plateaus on which it sits. But, as the saying goes, nothing lasts forever. Today Mineral Ridge sits as a place well past its heyday, fading and rusting under the sun, a curio for tourists to come and visit, and a place where the dispossessed and – maybe – those on the wrong side of the law – can find a place where they can settle or hide.

Or that’s how you might interpret the back story to this Full region, designed as a group effort principally by Norman Dobler, Aiden Cauldron, and thejunkyard. It’s a relatively new addition to Second Life, but one which is both atmospheric and which makes good use of the available space to create a scenic environment offers plenty of space for exploration as well as reflecting the theme of a once-wealthy mining town now well past its heyday.

Mineral Ridge

On the highest plateau of this rugged place, sits part of the town: grand houses  – including a villa of distinctly Tuscan looks – doubtless built by those who gained their fortune out of the mines below, but which have all seen better days. Some appear deserted, other still occupied – although whether by the original owners is perhaps open to question.

A road, cracked in places, loops around them, stables sitting between one or two, rough tracks now forming alleys between others. At one end of this road sits a more recent addition to the town – a motel. But even this has the same air of tiredness and age hanging around it as it faces a diner across the street, the offices above that long since abandoned and boarded-up. Only the emergency services building  and the Sheriff’s office around the corner from it, have a feel of upkeep about them.

Mineral Ridge

As the road twists a noose around the houses, a wide track drops away from it, winding its way down into a sheer sided canyon by way of an ageing farm before splitting under the gaze of an old radio tower, one part offering access to the west side of the region, the other running down into the canyon floor proper. Follow it down towards the latter, and if you keep your eye on the rocky wall beyond the trees and bushes lining the track, you might spot the hidden entrance to the old mines on which the town built its wealth, while down on the canyon floor sit ruins far older than the town.

The west side of the region can be reached not only via the dirt track, but also over an old trestle bridge. This offers a convenient short-cut to the west ridge of the region, a gap in the wire fence, at some point faced with corrugated iron sheets as if it had been armoured, allowing it to once more join with the dusty track, presenting explorers with the choice of visiting a decrepit shack or making their way up to the the old radio tower.

Mineral Ridge

All told, Mineral Ridge is an interesting and considered design, sitting somewhere between a role-play environment and photogenic region with some little mysterious edges. Photographers looking for somewhere just that little different as a backdrop to their work, in particular may enjoy a visit to the town. Once again, many thanks to Shakepeare (SkinnyNilla) for passing over the LM!

SLurl Details

• Mineral Ridge (Mineral Ridge, rated: Moderate)

Dawn of Radiance, Lost Forest, August 2014 (Flickr)

My first visit to Dawn of Radiance, Silvermoon Fairey’s marvellous homestead region, was back in November 2013. Back then, the region was in the grip of winter. Roll forward eight months, and the region is not only basking in summer colours, it has once again been beautifully remodelled, and from the high rocky buffs to the riverside grasslands, it  offers a veritable smörgåsbord of visual delights for those who visit.

A rocky cove in the south-east corner of the region forms the arrival point, a narrow shingle beach between waves and cliffs; with a tall brick lighthouse casting its eye out to sea nearby as a fishing boat rides the breakers a short distance offshore. The little beach offers places to sit, but walk along it and you’ll come to a slope leading you up between the cliffs where eagles have nested, and on to a grassy meadow, which in one direction leads you down to a farm where horses graze.

Dawn of Radiance, Lost Forest, August 2014 (Flickr)

If you go in the other direction from the first meadow, you can make your way up to a rocky plateau dominated by the angular form of a church amidst the ruins of what might be an old castle. A switch back path hugs the cliffs here, the single link between ruins and another sheltered beach below.

Wander through the farm and you have a choice: you can follow the track leading out to the big windmill standing sentinel-like on the headland; or you can take the bridge over the river and explore the grasslands on the far side and walk up to another meadow where more horses graze; or you can follow the track inland.

Dawn of Radiance, Lost Forest, August 2014 (Flickr)

The latter route may take you through a rain shower and some undergrowth, but trust me when I say it’s very much worth taking, whether you turn right and cross the river over the little wooden bridge, or continue onwards, further in the heart of the island; both routes will lead you to places of whimsy and fantasy. Keep an eye out, as well, for another route up to the church and ruins …

Nor is that all; the north side of the island hides another beach, while up on the hills and down between their shoulders lie places to sit, either alone or with a close friend, and simply watch the world go by – or forget about it completely.

Dawn of Radiance, Lost Forest, August 2014 (Flickr)

Such is the design of the region that exploring it feels like you’re on an island that is bigger than an individual region, and providing you don’t set-out to discover everything all at once, it presents a series of delights; just when you think that you’ve seen it all, you turn a corner or pass around a bush and trees, only to find something new and quite unexpected. Hence why I’ve not described some aspects of the island here (although admittedly, one photo is perhaps a bit of a giveaway to what you might come across!); I don’t want to spoil the pleasure of discovery too much.

There is a marvellous blending of elements here as well, which encourages you to feel as if you’re walking through a more expansive landscape; the use of elevation not only physically sets apart the farm from the church with its surrounding ruins; it gives an added sense of distance to your explorations as you find your way up to the heights, climbing above the tree-line and grasslands and into the rocky preserve of an ancient site.

Dawn of Radiance, Lost Forest, August 2014 (Flickr)

The same can be said of the use of hills and woodland to enfold the heart of the island and separate it from farm and ruins; following path or river into the interior not only again heightens a sense of exploration and discovery, it encourages a feeling of stepping into another, hidden realm  – the digital equivalent of stepping through the wardrobe.

With its regional windlight set to the first light of dawn, much in keeping with the region’s name, it almost goes without saying that Dawn of Radiance is a photographer’s delight, and lends itself to a wide range of windlights and sky settings. If you do pop over to take photos, I believe I’m right in saying that joining the group via the board at the landing point will give you rezzing rights for props, and there is a 30-minutes auto-return limit.

Dawn of Radiance, Lost Forest, August 2014 (Flickr)

Related Links

• Dawn of Radiance SLurl (Rated: Moderate)

Le Botanique, Miriam Brown, July 2014 (Flickr)

I first met Liara Okiddo as a result of visiting her home on the Region of Golden Rose back in July 2013, Garden of Eden was a 8192 square metre parcel of land where she had built a compact tour de force of what can be achieved without necessarily needing an entire region of your own in which to create an eye-catching build. It was a truly amazing and verdant design, rich in colour, flora and fauna, creating a tropical island like feel in which she had located her in-world studio and gallery.

In November 2013, Liara extended an invitation for me to see her next project – then a work in progress, Isla Okiddo, her own homestead, which opened to the public in February 2014, forming another visually stunning build where she had again created a wonderful tropical paradise in which she located her gallery and her home.

Le Botanique, Miriam Brown, July 2014 (Flickr)

Sadly, Garden of Eden and Isla Okiddo now only exist in memory and pictures, although they remain two of my top 10 all-time most beautiful locations in Second Life.

More recently, Liara has been working on a new project, which she pinged me about early on (and for which I still owe her an apology, and life, the universe and everything meant I never really supplied the feedback she’d requested). The project opened earlier in July (and which the physical world again conspired to keep me away from) and is another masterpiece.

Le Botanique is a 64 metre square slice of rain forest-like beauty floating in the air above Miriam Brown, and it is a marvel of design and the use of materials – around 75% of the build is materials enabled.

Le Botanique, Miriam Brown, July 2014 (Flickr) – note the beautiful wet sheen to the stone wall in the rain as it reflects the light from the lamp-post above; the beauty of materials

You arrive inside a summer-house in one corner of the forest (do make sure you accept the local windlight, if offered, on your arrival). The staccato beat of rain falling on the glass panels of the roof is your greeting, together with the crackling pop of wood burning in the hearth its accompaniment. A piano from the other room in the house might also add a little harmony to your arrival. But all these serve as background to the lush, rain-soaked slice of tropical splendour which awaits you beyond the sliding doors.

Rain splashes over everything here, pattering across cobbled terrace and wooden walkways alike, leaving a wet sheen over mossy walls, grassy rocks and dripping from the lush vegetation. A wooden bridge passes over a narrow channel of water separating the summer-house from an old terrace where sits a wrought iron garden table and chairs, dripping in the shower alongside a tall green house in which grow where exotic lilies and other plants are growing in rich abundance, sheltered from the rain.

Follow a set of wooden steps from here, and they take you up to the high point of the build, a rocky grotto where sits a table an chairs under a canvas awning.  Elsewhere, stepping-stones guild the visitor across the expanse of rain-speckled water below the summer-house and up to another rocky ledge offering another little seating area under canvas, this one with a touch of romance added: candles on the table, complete with a bottle of wine, two glasses, and a red rose.

Le Botanique, Miriam Brown, July 2014 (Flickr)

All of this exists an in rich spread of flowers and plants, tall trees through which sunlight slants, and over which the rain falls steadily. It’s an amazing sight for even the most causal visitor. However, if you want to experience Le Botanique to the fullest, then you should enable your viewer’s Advanced Lighting Model (Preferences > Graphics > check Advanced Lighting Model) option, if it is not already active.

This shouldn’t result in too big a performance hit on your system – you don’t have to enable Shadows as well (which are the performance killer). When you do so, Le Botanique will spring into even greater life as the wet sheen on the rocks and walls becomes visible, and the light from lamps and lanterns is reflected in the wet surfaces around you.

I’ve fiddled around with materials myself in SL and more noticeably on Kitely with Fallingwater, but I’ve done nothing to the depth of Liara’s project. As noted above, the built features the use of materials across about 75% of it, and this has involved Liara carefully selecting copy / mod items which she has then painstakingly retextured with custom diffuse (texture), normal (bumpiness) and specular (shininess) maps, and the results are truly stunning, and incredibly life-like; so much so in fact, that it’s possible to miss some of them without a degree of careful camming, therefore time is the order of the day when visiting.

Le Botanique, Miriam Brown, July 2014 (Flickr) – note the relief on the stone work and on the wooden boards

For those interested in the technical aspects of the build, Liara has created a special Flickr album charting her work on Le Botanique, and to be honest, her photos far outweight my meagre efforts here should you need any visual persuading to make a visit.

I never cease to be amazed and awed by Liara’s work; each of her creations builds on the foundations laid by the last, and each is in turn an incredible and beautifully immersive environment. In this, Le Botanique is no exception. It is simply glorious; a stunning demonstration as to what can be achieved with time, patience and materials, and (again) without needing an entire region in order to do so.

Le Botanique, Miriam Brown, July 2014 (Flickr) – the light of the lamps reflected off the wet surface of the wooden boards

It is, in a word, glorious.

Related Links

• Le Botanique SLurl (Rated: Moderate)
• Liara’s Flickr ablume for Le Botanique

NorderNey, Heaven Scent (Flickr)

I tend to visit places around SL in bursts. By that I mean I’ll visit five or six at a time, take notes, grab snapshots and then settle down to write about them. This inevitably means the order in which they appear in my Exploring Second Life series can be haphazard, particularly if I find somewhere which demands I write about it right now.

Sometimes it also means that places wind-up as a folder of snapshots and a set of notes sitting on the computer waiting their turn because I’ve *cough* actually let them slip my mind as I bounce around. This doesn’t often happen, but it did happen with NorderNey, Jacky Macpherson’s beautifully pastoral setting on her region of Heaven Scent – and for which she has my sincere apologies!

NorderNey, Heaven Scent (Flickr)

NorderNey is another of those evocative regions in which one can easily feel at home despite never having visited before. It brings together rural and coastal elements in a perfect blend of land and sea that, while it lacks any form of sim surround, still suggests it sits on a stretch of temperate coastline somewhere in the world; a place where the soil is still rich enough for a golden crop of wheat to be grown even as it slowly gives way to sandy shores and the sea beyond.

Two houses occupy the land, almost diagonally opposite one another. From the larger of these, situated next to the landing point, unpaved tracks offer visitors two routes by which to explore the island, one linking the house to the nearby lighthouse and the beach beyond it; the other winding “inland”, along what could easily be a river bank, and past that field of wheat.

NorderNey, Heaven Scent (Flickr)

This is a place which should be explored with local sounds turned on, as Jacky has added a sound scape which perfectly matches the setting, giving added depth to the surroundings as one explores. Close to the coast, the sound of waves breaking against the sand and rocks can be heard. Further inland, birds and wildlife sing, chirp and call; towards the northeast side of the island, and the second house, the wind can be heard sighing through the tall grasses and around and between the rocks and trees, while overhead and across the island, gulls cry as they circle on the updrafts.

NorderNey, Heaven Scent (Flickr)

That NorderNey is a photographer’s delight goes without saying – as many who have visited an blogged about it before me have proven. So to is it a delight for those who want to simply wander or sit and forget their troubles or spend a little time in the peaceful company of a friend or two; places to sit and share can be found right across the region, on jetties, alongside houses, on the beaches, in the shade of the trees –  even in one of the many rowing a sail boats moored around the island.

NorderNey, Heaven Scent (Flickr)

When I first visited NorderNey, I happened to be playing to J.S. Bach on the stereo. Given that sheep are grazing around the lighthouse on the island, the piece I happened to be listening to seemed a tad serendipitous, so I’m going to close with it here.

Related Links

• NorderNey SLurl (Rated: Moderate)

The Snow Lion, Oceanside dAlliez (click for full size)

The roar of the Snow Lion is a call for the awakening and integration of the body and the mind.  This garden is dedicated to that perfect integration and to the resulting bliss.

Thus reads part of the description for The Snow Lion, which occupies a quarter of Oceanside dAlliez; a place of serene beauty and tranquil settings.

The design, by parcel owner Sethos Lionheart, carries a strong oriental theme – which is the reason it caught my eye when browsing the Destination Guide – and is cleverly laid-out, offering paths to explore and secluded spots to discover.

The arrival point is in the lower portion of the garden, and the motif here may not be readily apparent until you cam out a little. When you do, you’ll realise land and water have been carved into a yin-yang, the Chinese philosophical concepts used to describe how apparently opposite or contrary forces are actually complementary.

The Snow Lion, Oceanside dAlliez (click for full size)

The cleverness of this design is easy to miss: the yin is formed by the water element – in keeping with its passive, soft, and wet characterisation and its association with water. It is rich with water lilies as it curls around the landing-point to join with the sea. The yang element, by contrast, forms a sweep of land, fully in keeping with its solid, hard character. Follow its curve, and it will lead you to a torii gate sitting before a bamboo grove and guarded by two lions. Here the path climbs upwards, passing under a stone arch before splitting left and right.

Follow the path to the right, and it will take you on around the lower part of the garden to a natural-looking pool, fed by water from falls on one side, and open to the sweep of the water “yin” on the other. A stone bridge arches over the water, offering the way to a western-style folly and a quiet place to sit.

To the left, the path runs past a stone terrace, home to a grand piano shaded by the boughs of a huge cherry blossom tree, before climbing more steps upwards to a grassy nook. Here sit cut logs on which to sit, and a harp to play, while the path passes onward  to come before the stone figure of The Wise General, branching right and left before him.

The Snow Lion, Oceanside dAlliez (click for full size)

Whichever branch you take is up to you. Follow one through the mid-level of the garden to tranquil lily pond where one can sit alone or with a friend, in quiet contemplation beneath a leafy canopy which naturally hides it from the garden above. Take the other, and it will lead you by stair and bridge to the highest level, passing another quiet glade along the way, this one presided over by a white figure of Buddha.

It is on this uppermost level that you’ll find the garden’s single building, a place of decidedly Tibetan looks, yet guarded by two Chinese Imperial lions. It offers a place to meditate or to partake of yoga or to enjoy a cup of simmering Japanese tea. A garden of wild flowers links it with a broad stone terrace, walled on both sides and watched over by the tall forms of torii gates, and which runs the length of one side of the garden.

The Snow Lion, Oceanside dAlliez (click for full size)

Here you will find speaking scrolls made by  Sethos Lionheart, each one bearing an image of traditional design and which offer words of wisdom when touched. These can be purchased for a modest L$50 each, and would grace the wall of any home. Along this terrace, through a set of wooden gates, another place for contemplation can be found.

The garden offers many places to sit, with poses for individuals, couples and friends exploring together; discrete bird boxes offer opportunities to dance for those who would like to do so. Paper lanterns hang from the cherry trees to light the path at night,  while kimono-dressed foxes hold up lamps to illuminate terrace and folly.

The Snow Lion, Oceanside dAlliez (click for full size)

All told, The Snow Lion is a lovely place to visit, and an attractive demonstration of yin-yang at work. These can be found in everything from the simple divisions of the path as it leads to very individual points in the garden, each with its own focus, yet still part of the whole, through the expression of the harmonious nature of high and low as you travel up and down through the different levels, to the complementary mix of cultural influences revealed as one explores: Chinese, Japanese, and western. Do make sure, as well, that you have local sounds enabled as you wander the paths and enjoy the terraces and glades.

Related Links

• The Snow Lion (Rated: Moderate)

Beeswing, Banana Island

I was drawn back to Banana Island, Bowie Zeplin’s homestead region, which I last visited in March, due to a post from Honour which indicated Bowie’s new build is now close to completion. As her work is always stunning to see, as anyone who saw Pangloss will know only too well, I knew I’d have to hop over and see for myself as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

As with her previous pieces, Beeswing is beautifully composed, striking to the eye and with a “natural” surrealism which makes it truly unique.

Beeswing, Banana Island

The first thing you’ll notice on arrival is the region is darkly atmospheric – I’ve taken the liberty of either toning-up my images or of using a slightly different windlight to the default. The landscape is largely given over to water surrounded by hills, and features raised wooden walkways which wind through the region and under the thick roots of trees which float serenely overhead.

Wander the walkways, and you’ll come across vignettes, large and small, many of which appear to be memories of childhood or of events from childhood. Some may be happy: an innocent game of hopscotch or a favourite book. Others appear less happy: the tiny apartment house, ripped open by an upthrust tree, perhaps an echo of a parental divorce, the shattering of a home, the tiny figure within the broken building representing a daughter standing isolated and alone as her parents go their separate ways.

Beeswing, Banana Island

Elsewhere, the images appear to be all that remains of dreams and hopes once held, or the memories of roads not taken: the dancer under a single spotlight; the naked figure rising from water displaying ever-changing images, her hand extended towards a star above her, as if reaching for her future. Mixed with these are other little vignettes I’ll leave to you to interpret.

Toward one side of the region sits a gilded cage, doors flung wide, within which sits an idyllic image: a house sitting in a beautiful landscape, smoke rising from its chimney as water tumbles from a waterfall nearby to feed a crystal blue lake before passing under a quaint stone bridge. The kind of thing society tells us is the ideal lifestyle we all should strive to attain; yet still those gilded cage doors sit, both inviting us in and perhaps warning us of the price we may yet face should we do so …

Beeswing, Banana Island

To determine a meaning here, if one is indeed intended, is not easy. Nor, frankly, is it required, given the captivating beauty apparent in each of these scenes. To me, if there is a theme here, then perhaps it echoes the meaning behind Richard Thompson’s song Beeswing, a refrain from which can be found in the region; that the installation is about the choices we make in life, or which are thrust upon us, and the price they carry.

If that sounds dark, then don’t be put off: Beeswing is an evocative place, stunning in composition and with a beauty as fine as a bee’s wing. More than worth the time taken to visit it.

Related Links

• Beeswing / Banana Island SLurl (Rated: Moderate)