Out of gas at a deserted, gas-less service station, in the middle of nowhere…

… it’s very hot, and dry, here, and I needed somewhere cool to rest. Luckily, I’d passed through this same valley, about 500 years ago, on the trail of some vampires…

… I remembered tracking them to an ancient, hidden cave system, somewhere over this way…

… my memory was correct, and I was soon in the delicious, damp coolness of this lost place. The vampires, of course, are not here…

… there had been 13 of them, all ancient and powerful. We had fought a ferocious, hand-to-hand battle…

… which was over far sooner than any of them had expected, and, also contrary to their expectations, I was the only survivor. All my battles with the Vampire Nation ended that way, they had never encountered anything like me, and should never have declared war on me…

… by the time they realised that, of course, it was too late for them.

Shot in the wonderful little landscape build at ISON.

Shot in the cute little theatre at Rosehaven Valley.

I serendipitously discovered Rosehaven Valley, this morning. Rosehaven is a loving homage to how the deco style of the 20’s and 30’s informed the 50’s in America. The pastel pinks and blues are super-gorgeous. I found this really pretty diner…

… I thought some 1950’s food might be nice, so I went in and sat at a table. I waited patiently to be served…

… I waited and waited, but no one came to serve me. Perhaps American diners, in the 1950’s, didn’t serve people with coloured horns?…

… undeterred, I continued to explore. There are some wonderful interiors, here…

…

… if you are familiar with the SL creators who make awesome 1950’s stuff, you will see plenty of their work in Rosehaven…

…

… although it says there are shops here, in ‘search’, I only found replica shops… these are all very sweet reproductions of that imaginary time, when life was pleasant and people were always kind and fair, as long as you were white and middle-class or better…

…

… my favourite place was this beautiful, fantasy trailer park…

… with it’s absolutely gorgeous 1950’s colours and style…

… and these dream trailer homes…

… with their perfect, dream gardens, where dreamers live in a wonderland that never really existed.

Placebo Gallery is now in Soho (:

Elvion.

I turned 12, the other day (: As I personally know some 15 year old avi’s, I realise 12 isn’t such a big deal, but I’m still really proud to be 12! Apart from several months, one year, due to crap internet connectivity, I have been a constant dweller in SL. Even during those crappy few months, I’d log on occasionally, just to see if things had improved, then log off in despair, unable to even walk across a room without being lagged so badly I would get lost…

… this rezday, LL sent me a little list of my stats for the year, comparing them to those of the ‘average’ avi. I was totally blown away by them!…

… apparently, the ‘average avi’ visits 87 regions in a year… I, on the other hand, visited…998!!… the ‘average’ avi does 220 teleports a year… I did 3,580!! I find this information astonishing! I realise that my thing is exploring, and visiting galleries, and, um, a bit of shopping, and that those things entail a bit of teleporting, but those stats seem to say that the ‘average’ avi, basically, hardly goes anywhere! Do they just amble about in the same sim, perhaps occasionally going somewhere new? I’m sure these stats would be accurate, as they come from the part of LL that tracks all that stuff.

Anyway, not only am I proud to have been here 12 years, but I’m even more proud that I seem to be getting far more out of my experience, here in SL, than the ‘average’ avi!

The Borderless Project.

Missing Melody.

Between Autumn & Spring.

When you click on the SLURL to ‘Neverever Land‘, you arrive in a wintery, nighttime garden…

… outside a dark and silent Victorian mansion…

… you make your way inside, and up to the cold and empty kid’s room. There, you find the magical door…

… to this absolutely gorgeous, tropical wonderland…

… which, if you are anywhere near my human’s age, is instantly evocative of all those stories, not just Peter Pan, but Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson, tales of hidden coves and lost treasure, sunken ships, pirates and cannibals, tales that genuinely kept the 7 year old human awake at night, scared of being kidnapped by nasty men with cutlasses and hooks for hands…

… but, evocative as it is of all those themes, this place is also surreal enough, and beautiful and mysterious enough, to not be scary…

… it has many visual triggers for anyone familiar with Peter Pan…

… and is just a stunning place to spend some time.