The Linden Homes Photo Thread

[Rolig Loon]

I enjoy all of the places I have explored in Bellisseria, but I find myself drawn particularly to the northern mountains. Yesterday was another beautiful day, so I headed for one of my favorite swimming spots, the large lake nestled in the highest peaks in Doodah.  The sun was warm, the songbirds were in their chirpiest mood, and the water was refreshing.

I'm glad I didn't bring my horse this time. He really doesn't enjoy the rocky ground in the highlands, and I just wanted time alone anyway. After my swim, I just sat and daydreamed in the sun for the longest time.

It truly is a pretty lake, secluded and deep and with soft grass around its western side. In all the times I have come here, I have never seen another soul.

From the ridge above the lake, you can see across Learmont and Burnside, all the way to Washburn lighthouse.  That stretch of the north coast was the first land to be settled on this continent.

I came down off the ridge briefly into Learmont and then followed a narrow valley south, back into the western part of Doodah.  It's almost like a park here. I felt just the tiniest bit guilty about not bringing the horse along, because he would have enjoyed the flowering shrubs and butterflies.

At the south end of the valley, I stopped to visit the ranger station, which sits in a steep-walled hollow at the head of the camping region.  It is certainly well-kept.  The flowers are lovely, and there are two picnic areas at the top of the stairs that lead up to the cabin.

The ranger wasn't in but the door was open so I walked in.  There was a warm fire crackling in the fireplace and a fresh pot of tea on a table inside the door.  I helped myself.

Upstairs, there's a cozy den with a small and remarkably quirky library. I spent a few minutes gazing out across the campsites and then picked a book off the shelf.

It was fascinating reading -- a technical study on the history of prims -- but it was too nice a day to stay inside. I put it back after reading only the first chapter, making a note to pick it up again the next time I am in the mountains.

It's not easy to get to the top of the ridge beyond the cabin.  There's only one poorly marked path from the southeast side, and it's fairly strenuous.  The view from the top, though, is marvelous.

I almost didn't recognize the spot.  When I first climbed up here, on August 22 last year, the land to the west was all grass as far as I could see.  My horse and I had come up the easier way, from Learmont, and I had hiked the last, steepest part alone.  There were no campers then, and very few trees.  I remember being able to see the homes in Fishermans Drop, which were new then.  What a big change!

I'll plan on coming back again -- there really are no better places to swim in Bellisseria than the lakes of Doodah, Whackamole, Copper Kettle, and Orion Falls.  And the views are breathtaking. 

Edited January 4, 2020 by Rolig Loon
typos. as always.

[Loretta String]

I finally found the perfect Traditional, which even has a beautiful garden in front of the house plus unblocked Ocean View !

 

[Rolig Loon]

There's a large, peaceful lake in the middle of Thomsbury, in the western side of South Bellisseria. I have been wandering in that part of the world this past week, finding some beautiful parks, places to sit and enjoy the neighborhoods.  I was sitting by that lake this morning when I remembered someone telling me about a park in Port Tack, not too far away, where you could get a magnificent view of the coast. I had my good walking shoes on, and the sun was shining, so  ....

... I set out, headed south.  The tree-lined streets in this end of Thomsbury are straight, rising gently into Sykesbury.

Easy walking, as long as you stay on the sidewalks.  I love what residents have done with the homes here.  Unlike the older traditional neighborhoods in Northern Bellisseria, where they have shown a strong preference for one home style, these neighborhoods are a joyful mixture of four different styles. Their owners have chosen colors freely and, of course, have added their own flourishes, so that each street has a distinct character unlike the last one.

And the flowers! I haven't seen such a profusion anywhere but in South Bellisseria. The scents are almost overwhelming.

From Sykesbury, I turned westward into Cape Edward, where a tangle of smaller streets led me to their community's central park.  Their lake is smaller than Thomsbury's but just as pretty. I swear I could hear ducks as I strolled around its banks, but I could never spot them. Perhaps they were hiding on that little island.

In Cape Edward, I could smell the sea air and hear distant gulls.  When I reached the eastern side of the region and stepped into Lower Barensmouth, there it was.  There's a delicate cove there, and a stretch of public land right along the shore.  From there, I could see my destination, the overlook in Port Tack

My friend was right! That's quite a splendid hill, with a very steep climb to the top.

I really don't know how they expect a horse and carriage to manage a slope like this, and I am very glad that I hadn't decided to ride a bicycle or one of the scooters that I have seen around recently. It was enough of a challenge to walk up.  Slowly.

It was definitely worth the effort, though. The view from Port Tack Overlook really is breathtaking.  To the north, you can see across the cove into the neighborhoods of Lower Barensmouth and, farther off to the west, the cape that is Bartlesmoor.  To the south, you can see far down the sandy Barstough coast to Cathanth.  On a very clear day, I imagine you might even see the point at Jonah's Keep.

The park itself is grand, especially the double-tiered fountain in its middle.  It's a bit windy, so I was glad that I had remembered to pin my hat on sturdily this morning.

I am so glad I made this walk today. I could visit here a dozen times and enjoy every one.

There was another young woman here while I was sitting and thinking.  She was wearing a rather tattered pink theatrical dress and doing lazy pirouettes along the path. Not doing anything purposeful, just clearly letting herself float free and take in the day.  Isn't it wonderful that there are places like this in Bellisseria where you can enjoy life like that -- I mean, just throw yourself into the day, breathe in the sea air, and dance?

Edited January 9, 2020 by Rolig Loon
typos. as always.

[PrudenceAnton]

Finally I have my dream  home.  I switched my Victorian home from the Verne to the Doyle.  And for the first time as I was putting down prims, instead of checking and groaning, I kept seeing I had a lot more to work with. I was able to landscape the outside how I wanted, furnished a lovely kitchen-diningroom combo, a lovely livingroom, hallway and bedroom, plus bath and laundry area. And I still have some prims left! 😅  Photos Below:

[PrudenceAnton]

 

[PrudenceAnton]

[PrudenceAnton]

[Leora Jacobus]

Extremely well done! @PrudenceAnton

Of all the Victorian furnishing attempts I have seen so far this is the one I like most!

Though my alts have succeeded in landing two very nice Victorians I did only just start furnishing them and then paused, for I find it extremely difficult. I do not want to use antique furniture so not create a museum or a stage for Victorian roleplay, but I aim at the atmosphere YOU acchieved, modern (but not too modern) with several faint romantic touches to refer to the Victorians stile. Till now I have no exact ideas but you inspired me to tackle the task!

 

Edited January 9, 2020 by Leora Jacobus

[Elena Core]

19 minutes ago, PrudenceAnton said:

love love love love love love love love love it!!! Where did you get those lovely curtains at, please?

[PrudenceAnton]

9 minutes ago, Elena Core said:

love love love love love love love love love it!!! Where did you get those lovely curtains at, please?

Spargel & Shine : http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hampton Bays/60/187/26

Fanny's Lace Curtains : 2-3 LI each up to 11 LI, depending on size. All the ones I sized for the windows remained between 2-3 LI. They work so beautifully and open/close, too!

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Fannys-Curtains/17155415

 

The cafe curtains are Crochet Lace Curtain -II-for KItchen - 2 sided by OpiUm (honey.icechant) 1-2 LI

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Full-Perm-Crochet-Lace-Curtain-II-for-Kitchen-2-sided/9749686

Edited January 9, 2020 by PrudenceAnton

[PrudenceAnton]

18 minutes ago, Leora Jacobus said:

Extremely well done! @PrudenceAnton

Of all the Victorian furnishing attempts I have seen so far this is the one I like most!

Though my alts have succeeded in landing two very nice Victorians I did only just start furnishing them and then paused, for I find it extremely difficult. I do not want to use antique furniture so not create a museum or a stage for Victorian roleplay, but I aim at the atmosphere YOU acchieved, modern (but not too modern) with several faint romantic touches to refer to the Victorians stile. Till now I have no exact ideas but you inspired me to tackle the task!

 

Aw thank thank you, Leora.  Most of the items I used were from Apple Fall.  It was great to be able to link so many items together to reduce back the LI.  A few other favorite creators added in for nice touches, like Dust Bunny and some favorite, very low LI gacha items I kept reusing.  I have struggled myself to get a home furnished just how I want it. The Verne I did in old world style and was so much fun to decorate, but this modern style is more me and I'm very happy with it. 

I do love how the rooms are larger so you don't feel like you are cramming items into a room to get the look you want then discover there isn't much room to move around in, or struggle with the camera view hassling about the tight fit.  Mostly, I love how I have a very nice nice front and back porch for sitting and enjoying the beautiful scenery. We got lucky and landed a home across the street from the sea, we can see it out of most of our windows, too!

[deplove]

I think I won't add anything else for now, since a park with a neoclassical fountain is behind the house, I kept the same style in the garden.

Edited January 9, 2020 by deplove

[Rolig Loon]

The last time I reported on a swimming exploration was on Christmas Eve, just a little more than two weeks ago. (Wow!  Has it only been that long?  I seems like last year...)  Anyway, I ended that trip after dark on a small rocky island west of Bartlesmoor.  I feel bad about how dark my last photo was, so I went back earlier today to take one in daylight.  It really is a lovely spot.

Since I was already there, I decided to take a brief swim south across Kelp Bottom to see what's there.  Most of the seafloor is pretty flat and uninteresting, as it is almost everywhere, but I did discover a small fishing shack tumbled among the rocks, along with some household goods.

I don't really understand how a building like this gets dumped so far offshore, although I suppose someone might have used it for ice fishing and then had to abandon it as the ice broke up.  It seems like a waste, but accidents do happen. 

The coastline east of Kelp Bottom is beautiful and sandy, and there are some prominent high points.  This one at Port Tack provides a lookout across the cove back toward Bartlesmoor and also to the south.  I met another mermaid cruising here while I was admiring the area, but didn't have time to ask much about other local points of interest.  She did mention a very exciting recent discovery farther south, however, so I decided not to hang around here much longer.

From Port Tack, I headed out to sea again, swimming southwest across Fog Bank and Three Fathom.  There's a mid-sized island in La Manche that has a cluster of houseboat docks on all sides. I have to be cautious around places like that because there's often toxic debris in the water.  Of course, there are also often motorboats to play tag with too, so houseboat communities are a mixed blessing for mermaids.  Today things were quiet, but I gave the houseboats wide berth and hooked back around to the southeast, into Flotsam.

The seafloor in Flotsam is surprisingly irregular, as if major bottom currents have flowed through here not long ago.  Maybe a monsoon?  I don't know much about the weather in these parts, but something large must have happened.  Large rocks are exposed in several spots, and the sandy bottom is sculpted into a tangle of hillocks.  There's a rather deep east-west trench extending from the middle of the region eastward through Cormorant Luck and probably beyond.  I was tempted to follow along it -- and may do that later -- but I wanted to find the discovery my new mermaid friend mentioned.  I searched back to the northeast, into Jonah's Keep....

.... and there it was, an immense building, much larger than the fishing shack I saw in Kelp Bottom.  This is a major structure and it's much too far from the southwest coast of Bellisseria to have simply drifted loose from its moorings and slid into the deep.  This certainly was dropped here by heavy storm waves, maybe during the event that caused some of the other irregularities I saw today.  It's huge.

Close up, it appears to have been intended to serve as an entertainment spot.  The sign suggests that it may have been owned by pickle merchants, but I can't imagine much of a market for pickles here.  Who knows, though? It's a crazy enough idea that it just might appeal to some people.  Or maybe it's just a metaphor, like The Big Apple.  In any case, it's not doing much business where it is now.

I had fun poking around and looking for a way inside -- I didn't find one -- and then admiring the scattered debris around it on the seafloor.  I feel sorry for the land-bound folks who must have enjoyed this place while it was still on the shore.  I bet it was quite an attraction.  Of course now it's a wonderful place for mermaid gatherings. It won't be long before the crowd starts to appear.  

Edited January 12, 2020 by Rolig Loon
Cleaner wording

[GinaFreumann]

5 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

and there it was, an immense building, much larger than the fishing shack I saw in Kelp Bottom.  This is a major structure and it's much too far from the southwest coast of Bellisseria to have simply drifted loose from its moorings and slid into the deep.

I'm amazed & delighted by the creativity of the moles!  So whimsical to put these surprises at random hidden spots for people to find. That Pickle looks so mysterious & ominous--it suddenly reminded me of Charlie in Lost.  Maybe he's wandering around in there 🥴

[MoiraKathleen]

I was visiting a friend down in Gullwing, and afterwords walked along the dunes.  I was glad to find a concession booth that was not pickles on a stick.  I much more prefer some good ice cream

[Enigma Bombay]

I know this isn't a typical "look how I decorated my LH!" post, but I couldn't resist. I was wandering around in Bellisseria and following train tracks when I came upon something that made me smile - a camper owner who has used a tree I created over 14 years ago (upon inspection it shows the tree was created Oct. 8, 2005) on my first account, Beryl Greenacre. I made several pink and white flowering SL trees (from my own photos) and gave them away, and I'm still gratified to occasionally see them around.  It's obviously not fancy nor mesh, but there it was in all its three-crossed-prim simple glory: 

[Leora Jacobus]

While on the inside I didn't put more than the curtains, today I at least tackeled the task of polishing up the outside of my Blackwell- Victorian. What I had done allready was adding the railing set, pathway and turret paint shell for the Verne by IMCR

Blackwell03 by Leora Jacobus, auf Flickr

I found the bench and the glashouse and the climbing roses in a 50L$ set by Maya's "Summer Village - Fully Furnished"

Blackwell02 by Leora Jacobus, auf Flickr

The bench has a lot of nice animations and props, here I am enjoying my coacoa

Blackwell01 by Leora Jacobus, auf Flickr

After relaxing and admiring the view on a "widows walk" 1st story porch addon made by @Marianne Little...

Blackwell04 by Leora Jacobus, auf Flickr

I ended up with some red wine and cheese on the backporch downstairs ("Garden Table with Chair" by Maya's)

Blackwell05 by Leora Jacobus, auf Flickr

 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Leora Jacobus

[Elena Core]

What a lovely view @Leora Jacobus. You've put a lot of effort in finding great spots, so I'm glad to see that place. It's like an ideal relaxing retreat!!!

[Rolig Loon]

The sky at dawn today was clear and a brilliant turquoise. I was up early because I wanted to explore some of the east bay communities in South Bellisseria before there were a lot of people out on the roads. In fact, there wasn't a soul around when I got to the great maze at the center of Shreve, where I had planned to start my trip.

I decided not to navigate my way to the base of the pillar that's at the heart of the maze, partly because I wasn't sure that my scooter would handle well in its narrow paths but mostly because I always get turned around in those places. I know there's a trick to knowing which way to turn, but I always forget it.  It's embarrassing.

Instead, I headed straight north, toward Carville.  The street lamps were still on, and I needed the headlight on my scooter, but I had no trouble finding my way.

Carville is a quiet seacoast community with large Victorian homes and gigantic shade trees.  The road from Shreve leads downhill to the water's edge.

Here's one of the side streets in Carville.  Isn't it lovely? This homeowner has such a marvelous bed of flowers.

Almost to the coast, I followed the main road west and over the bridge into the island where the Dutch neighborhoods of Grote Dijk and Bridesmere lie.  They aren't Dutch today, of course, but the community still has the old name that commemorates the Great Dike that early pioneers built here a very long time ago.

Bridesmere, on the northern half of the island, actually extends across a small bridge into the next island north. From the bridge, you can see the tangle of canals and larger channels that define the land in this part of the east bay.  These are all easily navigable.  There are boat landings and jetties all around the waterways.

To the east, I could look out across the bay to a small island that appears to be all public land, probably a nature preserve and beach area.  I will have to make a point of taking a small boat to explore that some day.  I can certainly see why this is a popular part of South Bellisseria.

Bridesmere gives way to the Bishopshead neighborhood not far from the north end of the bridge.  Streets there weave through the town, past lovely, well-kept homes and neighborhood parks, and then into the peninsular community of Dimanche.

From Dimanche, which has the shape of a grand hook , I could look back across the bay to Bridesmere, Grote Dijk, and Carville.  It's quite a wide expanse.  By this time, the sun was fairly high in the sky, the light morning haze was off the water, and I had a beautiful view of the whole coastline.

I followed streets to the end of the hook, finishing my trip at a cul-de-sac that overlooks Glencannon harbor and the bridge to Myles.  I truly envy the residents of this neighborhood.  They have water on all sides, beautiful trees and sandy beaches, and a quiet, protected cove for sailing.  It's an absolutely charming part of Bellisseria.

 

Edited January 15, 2020 by Rolig Loon
Trying to get rid of a duplicate image. Aaaaagh!!

[Tarina Sewell]

Edited January 15, 2020 by Tarina Sewell

[Nando Yip]

... decoration in progress ...

... when I finish the work, I have a party and I invite everyone to listen to some contemporary Brazilian music ...

[Elena Core]

16 hours ago, Nando Yip said:

... decoration in progress ...

... when I finish the work, I have a party and I invite everyone to listen to some contemporary Brazilian music ...

 

 

 I love your style!, really eclectic!! Count me in for that party

Edited January 16, 2020 by Elena Core

[Nando Yip]

@Elena Core 

thank you ... a few more days is I think I'll finish ... although I think the party will happen before.

[Elyeah]

Have a day off work today and spending some time fixing up my houseboat.

Edited January 17, 2020 by Elyeah

[Malayaa Morningstar]

23 minutes ago, Elyeah said:

Have a day off work today and spending some time fixing up my houseboat.

 

Love how you turned that little nook into a bedroom, and the nautical rugs and wallpaper!  I hope you have a fun day off work with the houseboat