Tag: Exploring SL Archives

Writing about Fox Road has proven to be a little difficult, even after several visits to the region. Designed by Vertiline Colter, this Homestead region is both open to the public for exploration, and home to her Little Fox brand in-world store.

I say “difficult” in terms of writing about it for a couple of reasons. The first is that I’m not entirely sure it is finished: several details, large and small, have changed as I’ve hopped back and forth between the region and home; the most notable perhaps being further landscaping of the north-eastern arm of the larger of the two islands. The second is, that while Fox Road has a personality of its own, I cannot entirely escape feeling an echo of NevaCrystall’s design for Borneo, Gac Akina’s handsome region (which you can read about in  A trip to Borneo in Second Life).

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the one is intentionally modelled upon the other; as those of us who travel Second Life are only too aware (and as I’ve occasionally noted in these pages), there are certain things – be they houses, bridges, landscaping elements, board walks, animals, cars, décor pieces, furnishings, etc., that tend to suddenly being en vogue for region designs to the point where it can feel you’re constantly tripping over them. Thus, visiting a region can oft put one in mind of another, quite coincidentally.

Here, the sense of familiarity is perhaps down to the way both regions are laid out: both share a very similar orientation and divide between the larger L-shaped island and the smaller; both feature cove-like beaches of grey shingle, and each has a wild, rugged feel. But Fox Road has more than enough about it to offer its own uniqueness of character.

Take, for example the small cluster of buildings just to the south-west of the beach landing point. These have the suggestion that perhaps they was once the location from which fishing boats once put out to sea (something very much enhanced by the presence of two large trawlers in the bay), the old rail lines perhaps used to carry iced catches away to market. However, time areas to have moved on: the main quay where boats may have once come alongside looks to be in a state of disrepair, while the water weed blanketing the surface of the water beneath it suggest any boat attempting a mooring would end up with its propellers fouled.

Meanwhile, the bay formed by the two islands seems to have suffered from at least one land slip that has pushed gravel and shingle out into the water to the point of making it impassable to vessels and leaving the two old trawlers trapped in place – their only other route of escape being blocked by the low-hanging, if also ramshackle, bridge linking the islands. Indeed, one of the trawlers appears to have been here so long, her old hull may have been holed by the rocks of the cliff that plunges into the waters behind her, leaving her waterlogged and listing heavily to one side.

The flat top of the main island is reached via a wooden steps and platforms that climb upwards from a shoreline cottage. Decking has been laid  out across the scrub grass of the hilltop as if it might have been put there at some point in time to give vehicles better traction. Now ageing under the Sun and in places in need of repair, a part of it acts as a path pointing the way along the top of the island, while the rest of it almost suggests an outdoor space for music – or at least for splashing around in an old paddling pool that looks as if it might benefit for a little more air being pumped into its sides.

A greenhouse to one side of this deck area, along with one of the buildings down below, gives the impression these spaces are still being used, both having furnishings within. But who might be using them is up to visitor to decide; is it a hermit or hermits with a bohemian lean, or are the barn and greenhouse used as club meeting spaces? Whatever might be the case, it is clear their use is not sufficient to prevent nature slowly laying claim to them, just as it is with the other buildings to be found here.

No sound scape was evident at the times of my visits, but those wishing to rez props for photography can do so by joining the Fox Road group – note that auto return is active, but do still please pick up your pieces after use should you opt to rez anything. Those who take photos in the region are invited to share them in the Fox Road Flickr group.

SLurl Details

• Fox Road (Meropis, rated Moderate)
• Exploring Second Life 2019

It’s been two years since our first visit to Rosy Highwater’s Gentle Breezes, and while I have a handful of region visits stacking up awaiting write-ups, I’m jumping ahead of some of the newer places we’ve visited (which are either getting a lot of attention right now, or may still be undergoing some further changes) to write about it once again as the colder months start to wrap their fingers around many of us as winter approaches.

A homestead region, Gentle Breezes offers a balmy, semi-tropical location of low lying beaches and palm trees backed by hills and temperate trees. Cut by a channel fed by waters tumbling from high falls, the region offers a restful setting where numerous places to watch the tide and the sea birds await visitors who want to spend time relaxing and enjoying their time together.

Up on the hills are more places to explore: cottages and cabins, outdoor seating areas, picnic spots, and more. Beaches and uplands are linked by a single path, one that passes between two blocks of rock a short distance from the landing point, wooden boards easing the way up the slope. North of these is a smaller beach facing a small island across a neck of water. Home to a cabin, this little island offer a place to get away from it all even while you’re getting away by visiting Gentle Breezes.

Wherever you wander on the region there is something to see or a place to sit and / or cuddle – while for those who fancy, the shallows can be waded and the local wildlife can be observed.

Spending a lot of time writing about Gentle Breezes isn’t really what counts here; the region is easy to visit and explore and offers more than enough to keep visitors engaged while exploring. So if you are missing summer already and want to have a sense of warmth and sunshine and hot sands beneath your feet, Gentle Breezes with all its little beauty spots and touches of detail, could be just the ticket.

SLurl Details

• Gentle Breezes (Seaside Shores)

Unconditional, designed by Tomisnotaboy and Moonsoul, is a Homestead region that has been garnering attention since it opened to the public in the past week – and rightly so. It is a visually stunning region, one that appears to have been brought together in a remarkably short period of time: the About Land floater suggests it arrived on the Grid on Tuesday, October 1st, 2019, yet it was open to all before the weekend had started!

The above should not be taken to mean the region has been in any way rushed – far from it; what is presented (although in part still a work in progress during our visits) is well put together, and offers a visually engaging setting that is rich in charm and flows naturally throughout.

Unconditional love — in its most simplest form — means appreciating someone else for who they truly are. It means loving them when they are unlovable, and in spite of their imperfections and mistakes.

– from the region’s About Land description

Split into a number of islands, most of them low-lying, Unconditional presents the kind of place I think many of us would like to escape to and set up home, were we able to do so. Two houses are to be found on the region, both towards its eastern extreme, and to the south and north respectively. These have been placed by Chavonne McAuley, whom I believe is the region holder. Unfurnished at the time of out visits, both houses appeared to be open to the public, although the one to the north-east, and sitting on the highest point within the region, is placed within its own parcel and so may eventually be intended for private use.

The island this house sits upon is the largest is the group, sitting above the rest as a pair of table-like hills that are home to both the house and a windmill that sits as if guarding the steps leading up to the house. The pairing of house and and windmill suggest this may once of been a working environment – perhaps a small farm (there are still geese and goats to be found here), but which has now been re-purposed.

Paths of various sorts run across the land here, perhaps the most fetching of them being an avenue of bent trees, reached from the house and windmill by a trail of cut log sections, that points the way to the western end of the island, a rocky bluff on which sits a little table of rock complete with brazier and seating – just one of many places to rest scattered throughout the region. A wooden board walk that also starts close to the windmill to present an alternative route west, stepping out and around the island’s northern cliffs, where waters tumble in a series of falls from a humped hill (which is also cut into by the sealed mouth of an old tunnel or shaft).

To the west, the land falls away sharply, a little stone bridge connecting it to a sandy isle. Such is the narrow channel between isle and island, the two might have one time been a single mass, the gap between them created by a partnership of time and tide. Now this western lowland encircles a pond of  – presumably – fresh water, whilst itself is bounded by wetlands. The latter extend to the south and east in a haze of sun-bleached reeds and grasses through which winds a further board walk, this one offering the way to a stilted cabin standing above the reeds and water, a cosy deck – and at its end, a little sandy bar that almost forms the region’s centre.

The second house on the region looks, from a distance, to be a rather grand affair. It sits on its own island that has sea wall to one side and rocky shoulders on the other, allowing most of the island to offer a flat expanse of grass, rock and sand that forms a garden / yard space where, given the chairs and tables set out and the presence of a coffee / hot chocolate bar, visitors are more than welcome. Reached via a bridge connecting it to the larger island and its house, this is a place experiencing its own little pocket of weather: while the region as a whole sits in sunshine, here the rain falls lightly but persistently.

The landing point for Unconditional sits on the long finger of a sand bar to the west of the region. Currently experiencing a low tide, the edge of this island has clearly been shaped by the action of tides rising and departing, as they have cut a low, but clear lip around much of the land in their back-and-forth passage. Linked to the rest of the region by yet another board walk (and rather novel tree trunk “tunnel”), this sand bar offers something of a different look and feel to the rest of the landscape, one that offers its own enticements and photographic appeal.

Rich in detail without ever feeling overcrowded, Unconditional really is a striking location for exploring, photographing and simply enjoying. Rezzing is open, but if you need props, etc., please remember to clean them up behind you.

SLurl Details

• Unconditional (Passionata, rated Adult)

With thanks for all the pointers: Shawn, Morgana, Wurfi, Miro!

Magisch en kleurrijk dat is herfst op Fleur welkom op Fleur. Onze muziek is altijd goed.

“Magical and colourful, autumn is welcome at Fleur. Our music is always good” – so reads the About Land greeting for Fleur Nederland (allowing for my translation!). A Homestead region designed by Sammy Recreant and that has – as the welcome and name indicate – a Dutch flavour to it, we were led to visit on the suggestion of Shawn and Max. 

While the Dutch have a traditional Halloween-style celebration, Saint Martin’s Day on November 11th; although like many parts of the world they have perhaps absorbed more of what is regarded as the “American” approach to All Hallows Eve – pumpkin jack-o’-lanterns, trick-or-treating (rather than singing songs), and so on; and this is reflected within Fleur’s décor at the time of our visit. Thus, for the next few weeks visitors are liable to find a haunted house, witches, scuttling pumpkins (yes, scuttling), giant spider webs and more.

Fleur’s landscape is now in the most beautiful colours that autumn brings. Come and have a look, enjoy the peace and colour. Welcome to colourful Fleur!

– Sammy Recreant, describing Fleur

Cast under a dusk heavy sky, Fleur offers a largely rural setting, heavily wooded and with scatted houses and other structures to attract visitors. There was no enforced landing point as the time of our visit, although one can be found in About Land, and I’ve used it as a starting point for this look around the region.

It’s actually good place to start, as it sits close to three of the public structures on the region – a cosy little garden hideaway watched over by sheep; a waterside barn converted for fine dining, reach via two stone arched paths; and – a little further away – a delightfully furnished stone-built cottage protected by a wall and grass embankments. Alongside and between these locations are dance systems offering visitors a chance for romance and gentle dancing.

Beyond these lie several more points of interest, all edged with hints of Halloween. There’s the little coastal chapel for example, a lone shelter sitting out on a headland and, to the south-west, a little dockside setting with wharves boats and little commercial properties set around a courtyard, all decorated for the holiday season and with the Dutch flag flying overhead. This area also have a bit of a North American feel, with adverts for New England lobster together with someone of a New England feel to the buildings.

In the square there are further opportunities for couples and visitors to enjoy dancing – with the local radio station sitting on one of the wharves helping to make the area have a further celebratory feel. Take a walk out to the little ferry terminal and you’ll find a teleport disk. Right-click on it and select Teleport, and you’ll be lifted into the sky to the beach of Fleur, a wide expanse of largely flat sands and coastline modelled after the Dutch coastline along the Wadden Sea.

Currently with an incidental hint of Shakespeare with its Halloween dressing, rich with places for visitors and couples to enjoy, and with nice touches in the wildlife, Fleur makes for a pleasing visit, and those who enjoy Halloween hoping are also likely to enjoy dropping in.

SLurl Details

• Fleur Nederland [Dutch] (Woodland Trail, rated Moderate)

Designed by amberfff, Kinglet Sound is a recently opened Full region offering visitors the opportunity to escape to a late summer setting where there is a plenty to see – although a little effort in exploration is required order to reveal everything!

To me, the region’s name evokes a location in North America, a place in the wilder, perhaps more northerly aspects of the east or west coat of the United States, or perhaps – if at a slightly higher latitude – just over the 49th parallel north; although there is a fair mix to the region that suggest some of the inspiration for it may have been drawn from elsewhere. The setting is predominantly rugged in nature, with cliffs raising the land to the south and east and through the middle of the region, before allowing it to fall gently away to lower grasslands and sands in the north and the west.

A gorge cuts its way diagonally through the landscape from a set of falls to the north-east, slicing its way south and west to the coast. It has also managed to branched to the north, breaching the lower-lying land to form a large body of water, thwarted in its efforts to reach the sea on that side of the island by a low-lying wall of rock. This wall, in part natural, also in places has the look of being carefully built up by unseen hands to expressly prevent that side of the island from being completely overwhelmed by water.

Caught within the bounds of the rock, the lake forms a place for people to relax and enjoy themselves. Decks are built out over the water to offer places to sit, while boats and floats offering more intimate places to snuggle are watched over by swans. On the sands, picnic spots await company, while further places to sit and enjoy company are to be found on the seaward beaches on the far side of the low rocky divide. These face a small island tucked into the north-west corner of the region that holds an altogether more tropical look, and what appears to be a venue for music and dancing.

The landing point for the island sits on the uplands, close to the gorge that splits them almost into two. Here, on one side of the divide sits an octagonal pavilion in a field, horse grazing quietly around it, a track from the bridge linking it with the rest of the uplands snaking away down a gentle slope to the shaded lowlands alongside the lake. This trail, crossing the bridge, also runs by the landing point and into a little circle of commercial style properties surrounding a fountain.

Primarily places to eat and / or drink, these little properties are all complete with décor, and together with the seating and other touches outside of them, both welcome exploration and offer places to sit down or for photography. A little south of them, and visible beyond a curtain of trees from the landing point, the ruined wall of what might have once been a very large structure invites investigation. Reached via another path, it stands as a backdrop to another cuddle spot and overlooks a further music venue sitting on the headland that in turn offers an view across the gorge to the highest point of the island.

Reached by crossing the single bridge spanning the gorge, this high table of rock has paths curling around it, one rising to the low-slung ranch house occupying its flat peak. Fully furnished, the ranch house is open to the public and offers further seating both indoors and out – including a fine look-out point extending over the cliffs, and another right at their edge.

However, the ranch isn’t the only point of potential interest here. As well as going up, the path cutting into the cliffs also descends, offering a path down to a ribbon of sand and the base of the rocks. The sand curls around to the west and then north, offering further places for couples to slip away from the rest of those visiting the island. Follow it far enough and it will turn to a grassy path that passes under a rocky arch back to reach the north side beaches. When taking this path down and around the base of the cliffs, keep an eye out for a couple of burning torches; the inquisitive might find they betray a secret within the cliffs.

All of this is still only scratching the surface of the region’s richness; there are paths and trails around the landscape I’ve yet to mention, both coastal and inland. Follow the sound of a faint guitar as the tune of Greensleeves is played, and it might lead you by way of path and sand to where a little garden cosy sits amidst a copse of trees showing the first hints of autumn with their golden leaves.

Offering an entirely natural look, a rich environment to explore (although it’s a bit of a shame that the “secret” aspect of the region referenced above doesn’t offer one or two little snuggle spots / points of interest) and with multiple opportunities for photography (and a Flickr group through which to share images), Kinglet Sound comes wrapped in a perfect sound scape to present a setting well worth visiting – and supporting by way of a donation at the landing point.

SLurl Details

• Kinglet Sound (Twilight Realm, rated Adult)
• Exploring Second Life 2019

With thanks to Shawn for the LM!