Thursday, March 15, 2007

Gardens of Bliss

Written 15 March, 2007

Gardens of Bliss

Some consider Luna Bliss’ plants the best in Second Life. I personally favor those of Julia Hathor, but Luna is hands down the winner for tropicals, of which she has many varieties. Pele is covered with Lilith’s palms and other exotics, and sprinkled liberally with Julia's flowers, which are beautiful, scalable, copyable, and affordable. I sure wish she would make a tropical sim!

Shopping at Julia's Creative Fantasies is a joy, for one simply wanders through the gardens and purchases whatever strikes her fancy. Julia and her partner have two beautifully landscaped and decorated sims with dozens of varieties of trees and hundreds of types of flowers, animals, houses, and furniture. The entire region is the shop.

Luna’s shop is much more formal. One can buy directly by walking down aisles lined with plants or buy packages of a dozen or so if any one likes from billboards which are conveniently separated by type (Trees, Marshland, Tropical).

But underneath! Oh, underneath!

Below the store, which hangs high in the air, is a wonderful wilderness that just has to be four full regions, full of high peaks, waterfalls, and lush vegetation. A few houses are artfully worked into the hillsides.

At the teleport entry to the Bliss Gardens is a hot air balloon rezzer. Visitors can ride a balloon (each seats four avatars), choosing from two different guided tours.

I took tour one, which I think of as the high tour, on Tuesday night. Sweetie had gone to bed, and I was at loose ends. (My work schedule has recently changed, and I don’t have to rise until 10 am, so I’m currently a night owl).

And so I took myself to Luna’s shop to buy some water lilies for Pele (I thought I bought them, but apparently I didn't, for I arrived home without them and had to go back for them). While there, I teleported to the gardens below and took the balloon ride.

It was breathtaking!

When, after twenty or so minutes the balloon arrived at its starting point and derezzed, I set out along the wooden track I had been seeing all over the sim, determined to walk the full length.

The path immediately climbed, and I spent most of time walking along ridge lines. The views were astonishing.

I fell through the track a couple of times (guess someone set those sections to phantom by accident, or maybe as a joke), but I otherwise had no trouble staying on the path. I walked for what HAD to be a half hour in real-time (a full days’ hike in Second Life) before the path abruptly terminated in mid-air, high above a gorge.

I went back the next night with my friend Axel, and we took the other leg of the tour.

I neglected to take any photos of the lower leg of the tour, but here are some photos of the upper leg.

Bliss Gardens are not to be missed!

3 comments:

Veronique Lalonde said...

These pictures are beautiful! Thanks for the tip.

Mordecai Scaggs said...

Sis, I hate to correct you, but the plants you speak of at Creative Fantasy are made by Julia Hathor. Lillith Heart runs the Heart Garden Centre, with her partner Dolly, in Plush Iota (one of the Plush's anyway). Lillith's plants are rarely copiable, I should know I ended up buying hundreds of her wonderful roses to create Melissa's Rose Garden.

That said, what a wonderful place Bliss Gardens looks. I must take Melissa there!

Cheyenne Palisades said...

Brain fart! I meant Julia Hathor. Ilove her flowers! I have corrected the text.

Thanks, big brother, for pointing out my error.