The
greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.
Hanna
Rion
I’m beginning a new
series of stories in my blog with this post.
(Yes, I
know as Significant Other points out, I have so many other unfinished projects
why add another. My reply is that the
ramshackle, unfinished nature of my blog contributes to its charm. I know that sounds lame but that’s my story
and I’m sticking with it!)
My recent
stories about the Silk
Road Hunt 5 and First
United Church of Christ made me appreciate the beautiful
gardens existing in Second Life (SL). Earlier
stories about places like the Hanging
Gardens of Babylon showed the grand scale of some inworld
gardens. Losses like Utopia
Naked Isle Resort have made me realize how ephemeral the
natural beauty of some gardens that exists inworld can be.
With these
stories, I hope to raise residents’ awareness of the beauty which is there for
their enjoyment inworld. And, maybe,
just maybe, with more visits fewer of these sims will end up as subjects for my
#lostsims hashtag in Twitter.
I won’t
pretend that these inworld gardens can ever replace those in Real Life (RL) but
like appreciating a fine painting of a natural scene on a museum wall in RL,
sometimes a virtual garden can compensate just a little when there’s no other
alternative.
These have
been designed by the landscaping wunderkind,
Mike
Olbracht, partner to my good friend, Perryn
Peterson. I’ve encountered
Mike’s work before in most, if not all, of Perryn’s projects. His work has always been outstanding and I’ve
been meaning to highlight it for some time.
This story permits me to do that as well as draw attention to the great
gardens of SL.
The
gardens are physically small by both RL and SL standards. However, as in many traditional Japanese
gardens, Mike has cleverly used the space to give the illusion of much larger
area surrounded by natural woods. (I’ve
seen this done to great effect in RL Tokyo.
What? Did you think I spent my
whole life in the Metaverse?)
Arriving
at the landing zone, a visitor sees a pathway leading away into the
gardens. Walking along this path, on
one’s left across a stream, hills gently rise to mountains against the
skyline. On the right, is a bay which
leads out to a bridge very much like San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge marking
the start of the sea. Continuing on to the
end, one finds a magnificent, traditional gate marking the end of the gardens
and the entrance to The New Mieville Tinyopolis – City of Tinies!
The
grounds are covered artfully with different varieties of trees, shrubs,
grasses, and flowers. Many of these are
typical Asian flora found in RL gardens done in this style. Cherry blossom trees are flowering
everywhere. Fuchsia and bamboo are in
evidence. Lilly pads are in the water
over which weeping willows lean.
A mountain
waterfall feeds a stream which runs through the gardens.
A word of
caution, I’m no botanist. Any mistakes
in classifying plants or in missing anything obvious are strictly of my own
making!
In
addition to the landscaping there are several Asian style buildings which
contribute to the overall effect of being somewhere in Southeast Asia. A large Buddhist temple sits on a hill
overlooking the gardens.
Frogs,
ducks, and butterflies flit about adding to the natural sense of the sim.
Asian
Victorian Gardens is a beautiful location to visit, to just sit and watch the
world go by! Perfect for
meditation!
I can heartily recommend to all who appreciate
natural beauty in a peaceful setting.
I’d like
to thank Mike for his beautiful work and to both he and Perryn for making this
available to all inworld.
I’ve
included links to pictures of the gardens but please go and see these for
yourself. I guarantee that you won’t be
disappointed!
I’ll be
blogging about gardens in SL from time to time.
If you have a favorite garden that you think I should visit and write
about then please forward me its name!
And, don’t worry, I promise that like this one there will be many where
visitors can keep their clothes on!
As always, I’m grateful to
all inworld for their kindness and time in stopping to talk with a stranger who
was passing through their lives.
I welcome feedback from
readers, please either comment on my blog or
e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com
.
If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here.
If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here.
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