Happy New Year! Celebrating Mieville's Beauty!

Hi Everyone - Let's ring in the New Year by celebrating the beauty of historic Mieville!

Hope you all are well! Sadly, I'm currently snowed in by a real life blizzard! 🌨 ⛄ 🌨 So pretty to look at but horrible to shovel out, lol. Since I'm stuck inside, I decided to wander around historic Mieville taking photos. I'm learning more about SL photography just for fun and want to share some results with you. Here we go! 

At Doyle, I have always loved the boats and the Steampunk lighthouse. But because they are at the very edge of the Doyle sim and there are tall buildings immediately behind where I'm standing, it is devilishly hard for me to get a good angle of the Saint Lidia boat and the lighthouse, and impossible to get much of the huge lighthouse in frame. Well, no matter — I like how both of these snaps turned out. Nice and very crisp! (Click on the photos to enlarge them. Look - I'm giving myself a slow clap, lol!) 

Doyle is one of the most historic sims in the Mieville microcontinent. It was created in 2008 and still has a number of impressive old original builds in place! I'm not sure how long the boat and lighthouse have been in place, but my best guess is circa 2011-12. 

Also at Doyle, I love the gorgeous Awl & Sundry Coffee & Teahouse. The Awl & Sundry has been in place at Doyle since around 2009. The glass-domed orangerie building itself and much of the promenade components were built by followmeimthepiedpiper and styled at Doyle by former Mievillian Mike Olbracht, one of Mieville's first builders who also did the St. Lidia boat and lighthouse. 

At Lakes, you'll find the historic Memorial Gardens. This area is a place of remembrance for friends and family who have passed. I visited many times before I noticed the huge teardrop sculpture in the sky. My photo captures just part of the sculpture! I'm using a bokeh effect here to focus the eyes more on the teardrops and less on other aspects in frame.

You can see I'm learning to play with lighting more in SL photography.  Loving the sundown behind the teardrop sculpture and how the light illuminates the center arches in the second Memorial Gardens photo. 

Also at Lakes is one of my favorite spots in all of Mieville. If this structure has an official name I don't know what it is — but I call it the Roman pavilion garden. (Okay, I'm cheating — this is an old photo I took last year of this beautiful site.) I didn't take a new photo but would be remiss not to include this lovely garden in this post celebrating Mieville's beauty. This garden pavilion and its walkways have been in place since circa 2008! Like the Awl & Sundry, the components of the pavilion were created by followmeimthepiedpiper and styled by Mike Olbracht.

At Twain, last year I beautified the Twain side of the Twain-Kipling sim border that is directly below the Bibliothèque's sky platform. The area was left barren after someone moved out so I added the trees, bushes, and this rocky shoreline. I like to sit here and watch the waves splash against the rocky shore. It's very peaceful!

Along the Steampunk San Francisco warehouses in the same area I recently added some Victorian-style streetlights and a wrought iron fence along the docks walkways to make them safer for strolling. It's amazing how really small changes like these can make a world of difference.

No stroll through historic Twain would be complete without a visit to the humongous and amazing Lexx Bondar Steampunk dirigibles (did you know you can go inside them??) and the old San Francisco docks warehouse buildings. But did you ever notice how beautiful the warehouse brickwork is? I didn't until I added those Victorian streetlights. Wow! Those colors really pop now! And of course there are lots of fun and unique shops, galleries & boutiques inside the warehouses - so please do go inside to browse and shop! Plus you'll find the huge and famous Lindy Modern & Retro Shoes nearby with a great selection of styles!

   

Okay, that's it for this round! Hope you enjoyed the quickie tour of a few historic Mieville sites and the photos. Thanks for sharing the Mieville love with me! Wishing you all a happy New Year — best to you all!

Your friendly Mieville Librarian & Shutterbug,

~Farzaneh

P.S. If you want to see more historic Mieville photos, please be sure to visit the Bibliothèque and pick up a free copy of my book, The History of Mieville. Enjoy!

Credits: Photos by Farzy