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P.R. Crastina's Travels

Started by evarburg, October 06, 2018, 07:09:50 PM

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evarburg

And So It Begins. I'm going to migrate some of my Simtropolis journals over here. It was a long journey that began on SimPeg with the encouragement of Master Paeng, to whom I'll never be grateful enough. You must remember that, at the time (it was, what,  2007 or 2008 ? Thereabouts), I was playing on a Mac -- with a Mac limitations (especially The Constant Phantom of The Grid, no clicking G would make it disappear. Over time, I learned to photoshop.)

I'm not sure how to proceed for making a Mayor Diary on SC4D, but I am sure some kind soul will tell me that's not how, or that it should be posted somewhere else than here. And help me move it if needs be. ;)

..............

Now, let me introduce you to P. R. Crastina, whose travels those journals illustrate. She's an SF writer, like me. And no, I won't say what her initials are for -- you are astute enough to guess. She travels mainly thanks to her work as a writer, a conference here, some workshops or readings there, a festival somewhere else... She goes straight to parks and promenades as soon as she gets anywhere : she likes to walk aroun, the best way to get to know a place. And she likes trees. Oh, how she likes trees and all that is green or flowering on God's green Earth.

As she is not a very famous writer, she's generally invited to smaller cities or town. She's a country girl, who finds big cities somewhat disturbing -- the crowds, the constant buzz, the hurrying, the smells... She finds them interesting, of course, but, after a few days, she just wants to flee leave. By a happy coincidence, three days is about the duration of the conferences, readings or festivals she attends to. So : perfect life.

And she began here, in the Queenbee region (a map I made, going crazy with the God Tools)










Tarkus

Quote from: evarburg on October 06, 2018, 07:09:50 PM
I'm not sure how to proceed for making a Mayor Diary on SC4D, but I am sure some kind soul will tell me that's not how, or that it should be posted somewhere else than here. And help me move it if needs be. ;)

Don't worry, you're doing everything absolutely right--and it's great to see you here in our MD section! :thumbsup:  The Queenbee region looks quite picturesque, and it's nice seeing it in different seasons--your "going crazy with the God Tools" yielded some nice and varied terrain, too.

-Alex

evarburg

#2
Let's visit some more, then.

P. R. Crastina was born in the mountainous Queenbee region. She likes to go back there during the early fall, when the trees begin to turn [that was before girafe!) and snow lightly touches down here and there, a herald of future beauty -- P. R. loves winter. [I was giddy with triumph because I'd finally managed to find a terrain mod that did make some snow.]

Also, it's a rather festive season. One of the main attraction is going to the Sugar Shack [the late Doc Rorschach/WMP had made a series of them, and one ***with my name on it***. I was beside myself.] http://workingman-productions.co.uk/downloads/wmp_downcat01.asp







The small fair/market/amusement park is still there, a little shabbier than she remembers. No kids today : they're back in school. She feels like she's playing truant !



Trekking all the way up Mount Babel, she paid a visit to the camp where she spent some of her childhood holidays. The lake is not frozen yet but no swimming today ! Still, good memories.



The scenery is still impressive, even to her grown-up eyes.











There are still a few campers, those who prefer a cooler weather :



And back down she went :





Once back in town after the long trek down, she realized to her dismay that she was somewhat out of shape and decided to go to bed early. She had to perform the next day in Queenbee's schools !

Seaman

There's quite a lot going on in that forrest.
It's so nice to see (some of?) your work here, now.  :)

evarburg

Quote from: Seaman on October 07, 2018, 10:48:39 AM
There's quite a lot going on in that forrest.
It's so nice to see (some of?) your work here, now.  :)

Apologies to those who may already have seen my CJs on Simtropolis. Indeed, nothing new here...

evarburg

P. R. went back to the small town of St-Jude's Cove -- also a part of the big amalgamated town that is now legally "Queenbee", like all the other small towns of her childhood. They haven't lost they own name, thankfully, nor they specific character. St-Jude is open to the sea, and that is what gives it it's unique character. As a kid, P. R. spent many a day sailing, swimming and just sunbathing along its shores.



















The town itself hasn't changed much. Smalltown is as Smalltown does. Life here is still quiet and unhurried, especially now that most summer people are gone. And you can still guess how the streets were fifty years ago, before asphalt... [I was fighting so hard against the grid !!!]






Themistokles

Can only agree with Tarkus, the region looks really picturesque! And I can only welcome you here.

A small tip, if you have the images somewhere in higher quality, would be to resize them with the [img width=800] code so that they that way will be clickable for full size.
Come join me on a hike to St Edmea!

Latest update: 7

"In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create, but by what we refuse to destroy." - John Sawhill

evarburg

#7
Ah, yes the width=800 thing. I didn't know about it when I began -- what you are seeing now are my very first MDs. And I never had a full screen SC4 window -- in fact, for a long time I played on my macbook ! Even now with a Windows partition on my mac... And I made jpgs with my PNGs, not clearly understanding the "click to enlarge" thing. I'm afraid most of my pictures might not be very high quality.

I kept many PND later on, though. So, if you could explain the process, I might still apply it for later MDs ??

I mean : how should I save my PNGs ? Some of them are really heavy and I wouldn't want to unduly burden the site.

evarburg

(and still not with "click to enlarge", sorry.)

Two other small towns of the Queenbee region. First, Bellaing, which was the logging town -- the log roads are now hiking trails, mostly. It's over there, in the eastern corner of the region :



And it IS a small town, at the foot of its mountain :







Then you have ST Benedict, slightly larger --it has two churches and a library ; that's where P. R. went to meet with the school's kids. She took the little train -- not that it is far, but for the memories it brings back, especially that of the Big Rock Slide that was one of the region's major event way back then. But the forest is coming back.



There is a resort hotel for tourists...



... but she'd rather go to "Chez Yvette", a more modest venue whose current owner is a childhood friend





The rustic houses with their gardens haven't changed a bit ; everything just looks smaller, even the ST-Basile church...





mattb325

I remember this from Simpeg days. It's nice to see it over here :thumbsup:

evarburg

Quote from: mattb325 on October 11, 2018, 02:58:11 PM
I remember this from Simpeg days. It's nice to see it over here :thumbsup:

Thank you. And yep, I'm recapitulating my evolution as a Mayor, as en encouragement (I hope !) to future players, as I was encouraged (emboldened, rather !) seeing CJs on Simpeg, Simtropolis and here. Playing is solitary, and I love that we can share the end results. :)

evarburg

A few overwiews of the Queenbee region. As I didn't keep my finished regions, at the time, (and mosaics were not even a glimmer on my technical horizon), all those towns are long gone and I don't quite remember what was where. But it gives an idea.
















Akallan

Wow, I really like these little villages by the water and nature next door. You have made beautiful updates. :)
My CJ :


My european road textures project : S N T - v.2.1

evarburg

Thank you. Like P. R. I am a country girl at heart. In the beginning, and especially with that first big region, all my cities were smalltowns. I guess I was trying to recreate what I grew up seeing around me : the countryside, farms, fields, trees & assorted greenery...So I began collecting MMPs !

evarburg

And now we go to Marlinville.  Built around on Lake Riel, it is the region's main tourist attraction in summer. P. R. knows its beaches by heart.



The little port which was once dedicated to fishing is now mainly a marina.













The town wraps itself around the lake with its fields as well as its industries.





For a long time, with fishing, the main industry was logging. There is still some left.



It still has a busy little freight rail station.



But mostly, it is the beaches that attract people here. The whole Queenbee region relies more on tourism (all year round, with the hiking trails) and agriculture than anything else for its economy.













Something has been added since P. R. last came here : at the point were the lake is the most narrow (and where P. R. and her friends used to swim across, challenging one another to races), there is now a pedestrian bridge, with parks and bicycle trails that ate some of the beaches on both banks. Well, at least now you can cross more leisurely and not be wet on the other side.














evarburg

(here 's a long one one...)

It's been twenty years since P. R. last was in St-Joseph-du-Lac. Although most of the town still looks the same, some of if has changed.



After all the clear cutting, the Big Rock Slide happened during a specially rainy spring, and wiped out one of the upper hiking trails she loved the most – and almost destroyed her friend's Josie's farm.









Fortunately, their other favourite trail, the one going to the Lake Riel's North beach, is still intact.






P. R. spends an afternoon with Josie, hiking up and down memory lane along the trails. You have to go quite a way up, and then it's down all the way ; not that it is easier. Sore calves and thighs at the end of the day !









... and down...






... and there at last !










There is also, of course, Lake St-Joseph, with its resort ; but compared to Lake Riel it has always felt to P. R. like a small swimming pool. Also, its shores are quite rocky and gravelly – less comfortable for sunbathing.









Not many sunbathers ; but the boating is still drawing a crowd even in this early Fall.




A lot of what P. R. knew as wood lots has been cut down and replaced by fields, although some are now tree plantations. Many slopes are too rocky, though, and have been left wild.














St-Joseph has rather early on converted from logging to agriculture. You can still see the old logging town center, at the crossroads, but when you buy trees at the garden center, it's mostly for your garden, now.







St-Joseph is also where P. R. Crastina learned what all country girls know : food doesn't come from the supermarket shelves. And it's hard to grow. But kinda rewarding, when the harvest is finally ; she used to help here and there during the summers, to make a little pocket money, especially at Old Marcoux' farm.

















Old Maurice Marcoux(still there, and even older) has mostly converted his farm into a B&B with bucolic nature paths, where you can come and pick your own apples ; vegetarian tourists are assured that none of his cows (the family owns two dairy farms...) will ever see a slaughterhouse. Milk, butter, cheese – and ice cream – that's all they are for!














Akallan

Magnificent! Your MMP work is great, and the water edges are very well done. I have only two complaints: the beach - water transition is too rough, it should soften the water and I find that the large road bridge that crosses the lake is not very good. In reality, I do not think there would have been a bridge, the cost of construction and ecological is too high compared to its utility, the lake can simply be bypassed by the coasts.

Superb update despite these details! :thumbsup:
My CJ :


My european road textures project : S N T - v.2.1

scott1964


evarburg

Quote from: Akallan on October 17, 2018, 10:51:50 AM
Magnificent! Your MMP work is great, and the water edges are very well done. I have only two complaints: the beach - water transition is too rough, it should soften the water and I find that the large road bridge that crosses the lake is not very good. In reality, I do not think there would have been a bridge, the cost of construction and ecological is too high compared to its utility, the lake can simply be bypassed by the coasts.

Superb update despite these details! :thumbsup:

Thank you very much. I was very new to MMPS at the time, and all the rocky parts on the shores were still quite... heavy-handed. I was aware of the problem beach/water but didn't know how to deal with it (In fact I've found only very, very recently how to do something about it so it will no show up in any of my old MDs). As for the pedestrian bridge... well, I loved it, the creator was a dear friend, and I really wanted to use it. Also, I wanted my peeps to be able to go from one side of the lake to the other, at least on foot or on bike, by a less circuitous route. And I was trying (at least) to be ecological : there are parks and bike paths on each end, aren't there ?  :D

evarburg

As part of her prolonged visit to Queenbee's municipalities, P. R. has been invited by The Hippies. Well, that's how the town's people affectionately call the Gesalen community that has been living up in the mountain for three decades now. They were skeptical at the beginning, but seeing world famous thinkers and doers gathering there for conferences, retreats and --yes  ! -- writing workshops, putting Queenbee on the Map, they decided the kids were all right. As long as they stayed mostly up there.









The Hippies are also raising sheep : at the beginning, they were supporting themselves by selling their cheese and wool productions (they presented P. R. with a luxurious, multicoloured cardigan).









It is the Ashram thirtieth birthday, and, at the end of her stay in Queenbee, as the cool autumn night falls on the town, P. R. is in for a treat : she loves fireworks, and the city decided to offer one to the Ashram as a birthday present. It is something else, seeing fireworks from up on high...





As P. R. leaves Queenbee, a few days later, there is another touch of snow. The winter season approaches. But she will spend some of it somewhere else, way down South.