I visited ‘Handwood Aquarium‘, last night…

… this is a gorgeously done public aquarium, beautifully detailed…

… at the risk of sounding trite, this is very much like a real world aquarium, only without the seediness that such places often have…

… this is a museum-quality experience, with wonderful displays, and the lighting is fabulous, very soothing…

… it’s a very relaxing place to wander around in, viewing the explosions of stunning aquatic colour, and the sudden dartings of schools of pretty fish…

… there’s a gift shop, with very affordable aquatic-themed art, and next to that I was pleasantly surprised to discover the entrance to a ‘nature walk’…

… which I found equally as delightful as the aquarium…

… a wonderful little micro-worlderness of flora and fauna.

I dreamed I was in ‘Black Kite‘, last night…

… or I think it was a dream…

… perhaps I was really there…

… it’s so hard to tell, with Black Kite, the whole place is so dream-like…

… it doesn’t really matter…

… whether you are actually there, or not, it’s still beautiful.

I visited ‘Elvion-Woodland Realm‘, today…

… this is a beautifully crafted world…

… with a softly washed-out sky, whose light makes everything feel as though you are in a Victorian-era romantic painting of an idyllic, bucolic paradise…

… there’s plenty of scenes to discover, here…

… from woodland to shore…

… you wander through the paintings in your mind.

I noticed, today, that ‘The Apartments‘ still exist…

… so I went and had another look. My experience this time was slightly different than the first time, 9 months ago. This time I couldn’t find the central lounge area I found last time, so the images are from some different locations…

… lot’s of lovely signage for backgrounds…

… rain constantly pouring down beyond the windows…

… the future beckoning.

I recently visited ‘Salen’s Gallery‘…

… the landing point is one of the most dramatic I’ve seen for a while, a gorgeous place to shoot pictures…

… as is the interior of the gallery…

… which has a wonderful, continuous light show…

… playing across most of the surfaces…

… there’s also some great art here, too.

I saw that Transylvania was celebrating turning 17, and that people were welcome to come and celebrate with them for a week that ends soon, so I thought I’d go and have a look…

… while what I saw was totally acceptable, given the theme, it wasn’t what I’d expected. I’d expected cheesy overkill, but this town of Medieval/Tudor/Victorian-style buildings looks amazing…

… such wonderful mood evocation…

… and I really liked the lighting…

… eventually I arrived here, and this was what I’d expected it all to look like, but this was not tacky at all. I’m not into the whole vampire/roleplay thing, or the medieval thing, so didn’t go any further, but I was very impressed with what I did see, and must have been here for at least an hour… just past the landing area there are some really good art galleries, too.

I visited the very beautiful ‘Runaway Moon‘, today…

… the place is a dazzle of colours and mist…

… with purples being very prominent, and adding to the feeling that you are experiencing something extra-normal here, a reality deeper than dreams, and richer…

… in fact, the whole place is very dream-like…

… so much so, you can sit and listen to a bed-time story, read by a raccoon…

… then find yourself sleepwalking beneath the purple moon…

… not ever wanting to wake…

… to stay a dreamer.

After my last post, I was delighted to receive an invitation, from one of the people responsible for creating that monolith, to visit ‘ASR Kessel‘…

… this is a gorgeous scifi build that the ‘ASR’ group are creating. The build isn’t finished, yet, but they hope to have it done by the 1st of December…

… there is plenty of organic landscaping, which adds just the right amount of softness…

… to what I’m calling the ‘Cyber-Brutalist/Gothic’ architecture…

… which is further softened by plenty of lovely neon and cyber-heraldry…

… I love the combination of 1920’s era type fonts with neon and the proportions of scale used, especially on the ASR Embassy, which would look totally at home in either ‘BladeRunner’ movie…

… there is already a functioning nightclub/event space here…

… there are even some rooms to rent, though I found the rental to be pretty steep, but if you are rich, this would be a cool place to live…

… on the main concourse is the ‘Mochalorian Cafe’…

… where you can take your coffee inside or out. I am going to call the fabulous decor in this cafe ‘Cyber 70’s’.

There is even a functioning movie theatre, here. I enjoyed my visit, and meeting several of the ASR team, who were all very friendly. Visitors are welcome.

I decided to check out the new object, down the road from the cafe in Wyrd, today…

… as I got closer, its size became more and more obvious…

… a giant cyber-monolith has sprung up, just down the road from our cyber-cafe…

… it is beaming stuff into the ether, and has runes embossed on its faces…

… it has a very weighty, monumental feel about it…

… a fact that only seems amplified by its seeming to hover weightless on its plinth.

I have spent nearly a decade developing my little slice of SL. I started across the road, not even owning what you can see here, now…

… buying this land, also, about 5 years ago…

… my little world, on two sides of the Circuit La Corse, has undergone many, many transformations, but has gradually settled into this park-like place…

… where I love to just wander around, and think about how much it’s changed, and how much I love it, now…

… next to my stargate, is a wooden gate in a solid fence, this gate is guarded by two magical gargoyles who prevent uninvited space invaders from getting into my home and behaving badly, as has happened when the place was unprotected, and open to all. The grounds are still open to anyone who comes through the stargate, or off the main road.