Adventures in Caledon
Well, I’m in the midst of design for the upcoming issue of Prim Perfect magazine featuring the Caledon sims, due out at the end of this week on 12/15. My editor, Saffia Widdershins, IM’d me last night to let me know that she thought she’d found the perfect cover: a little park in Caledon Wellsian dedicated to Clement Clarke Moore, who wrote the immortal “A Visit from St. Nicholas.”
So I immediately dropped what I was doing and went inworld to go see this marvel. I didn’t have a landmark, but Saffia told me it was “across from the library.” That couldn’t be too hard to find, could it?
I teleported into the sim and ended up near a skating pond. Free skates were available and I took a pair, but didn’t have the opportunity to test them out. I’ll have to make a note to self to go back again just to go skating…
A couple was talking nearby (Amber Palowakski and ZenMondo Wormser, both residents of Caledon) as I scanned the local area for anything that looked like a library and greeted me in that friendly fashion I’ve found exists throughout the Caledon sims. I asked for directions and they offered to take me there themselves—very polite and helpful.
The park is even more beautiful in person than I gathered through the snapshots Saffia took. Snow falls gently around the pavillion where Santa sits, and I love the little lights on the ash trees.
It’s a very lovely park—even has reindeer grazing under the trees. No doubt resting up for their Big Night in a few weeks.
I agree with Saffia that this location will make a striking cover. I took a few more snapshots for good measure and thanked my couple who had led me there. Amber offered to show me a few more places in Caledon Moors where she lives and I instantly took her up on the offer. Yeah, I should’ve been in bed an hour ago, but…!
Amber, or more formally known as Amber Lady Palowakski, Baroness of Bauerhoff de Caledon, OWR, next showed me her fortune-telling shop. It’s just northeast of the telehub in Caledon Moors. I love the ever-present fog in the sim—I kept expecting to meet a vampire in the shadows.
Amber performed a tarot reading for me in her shop upon my request while Zen watched on.
After the reading, Amber offered to show me a not-well-known site to see in the Moors—the Cavorite Mines (walk north from the telehub along the railroad tracks and you’ll see the Mines on your left). From the sign outside: Discovered in 19884 by Dr Cavor during the Caledonian Survey Mineralogical Expedition, this outcropping of the Caledon Moors contained a wealth of the rare earth ore cavorite, a unique mineral that repels the force of gravity. (Caledon’s theme is Victorian steampunk, so you know where the cavorite comes in…)
In the bottom of the mine is an unusual cavern. Strange writings are carved into the walls.
(Amber is in the background and that’s me in the red Victorian dress in the foreground—I decided to go native when I visited.)
Amber is standing in front of an early representation of the Caledon Sims. We weren’t sure what all this below in the cavern meant—a mystery!—and it was a lot of fun to look at and speculate.
I look forward to exploring more in Caledon. And I still have those ice skates to try out…
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