Yaya Bingyi

Yaya Bingyi (centre) leads a tiny Halloween hop-a-long.

Woke up to some terrible news this morning - Second Life tiny resident Yaya Bingyi passed away last weekend.

Her RL partner sent me a notecard stating that she died on July 5th, "from complications to her long illness."

Yaya was a tiny hippo in-world. She'd had a store on the Shire in the shape of a beehive almost since Raglan came into being. I remember it being there when I first visited the sim and was immediately drawn to it. Even then, it was already well-stocked with a range of beautifully made tiny wares. Most of it was made for females, but that didn't stop me from admiring the workmanship and envying the talent that had gone into making them.

Time zone differences aside, it seemed that for a long time our paths never really crossed in-world - that is until late last year when I was quite randomly teleported to a gathering of tinies on some remote sim where the group already there was inflicting their own brand of silliness onto whoever they could. Yaya was part of that group and welcomed me as though we'd been friends forever. I guessed that as I'd been around the Shire for not much less than her, she'd heard of me through mutual friends or by reputation (unbeknownst to me at the time, I'd already connected with her through Facebook and she followed my ramblings on Twitter, both under her RL name); and from then on, we chatted and chatted. I remember she was using Voice that morning and there was just something so enthusiastic about how she spoke that it made me have to plug my headset in to chat back to her. Normally I wouldn't have bothered, but Yaya's energy made me feel as though I wanted to be part of that conversation.

And then she wasn't around so much again. I'd occasionally see her drop a comment or two on statuses on Facebook, so I assumed she was OK. I'd never have known that she was unwell. I don't know what her illness was; I do hope she wasn't in pain. And I do though know that Yaya left behind a good number of friends who will miss her.

Looking Forward to SL10B!

Wow, it's that time of year again already?! Seems like it wasn't that long ago that we chopped down our Giant Mushrooms at SL9B!

Well, it is that time again, so of course Raglan Shire and the tinies have a presence there. This year I again recruited the amazing Etheria Parrott and Panacea Pangaea to assist with the building and asked Summer Seale to come on board to help add a touch of sparkle and all-round beauty to the finished thing. I did virtually nothing; OK, I came up with the concept, but aside from that my contribution was embarrassingly minimal!

It's Second Life's 10th birthday and this years' theme is Looking Back, Looking Forward, encouraging residents to review their time in SL so far. I don't know of anyone who's still around since then - I think the only person I ever met who was 'born' in 2003 was the late Stillpink Sandgrain - and of course Raglan Shire didn't come into being since 2007, so we haven't had as much history to draw from, but enough.

I won't elaborate any more on our build just yet so as not to spoil it for you, dear reader (it doesn't open to the public until tomorrow), but I think the ladies have done an incredible job. I do hope you find time to visit!

Super 6 Cometh!

April 2013 will mark Raglan Shire's 6th anniversary of being and as usual we are holding a themed-event month to celebrate. This year's may prove to be one of the most exciting and dynamic yet!

It's Super 6: Superheroes versus Supervillains!

For the 30 days of April, the League of Defenders (LoD) will fight back against the forces of the Legion of Tiny Villains (LTV) from spreading their influential menace across the cluster!

The LoD have erected a glorious base of operations beside the Shire's favourite social hangout, the Paw & Whisker clubhouse. It's a pristine white villa and has been strategically placed directly opposite the abandoned warehouse that the LTV have taken up residence in. The former base of operations of The Leftovers Catering Company has fallen into ruin but the LTV are now using it to cook up their own evil schemes!

The League of Defenders' Headquarters

But on whose side of the stream will you align yourself with? Will you stand alongside the heroes of the League of Defenders or will you set out to cause trouble with the Legion of Tiny Villains? Or will you align yourself with neither? Perhaps you will be a mercenary, ready to fight for the highest bidder or perhaps you are already part of a group that will take on all-comers!

The Raglan Shake

So my good pal Pyewacket and I filmed this yesterday...



Fun times!

Tinies Rising

Here's Petlove Petshop's finished video for the One Billion Rising campaign.

The tinies I helped gather together make a cameo at around the 2' 48" mark, but it's worth watching the whole thing. It's a very well put together piece and perfectly captures the breadth of different communities and cultures with SL.

Ladies Rising!

Oh, hello 2013!

So I managed to help organise a crowd for a video shoot today; Petlove Petshop and the Prim Perfect team are putting together an in-world video to support the One Billion Rising cause, to help raise awareness of anti-violence programs for women across the globe.

Petlove wanted part of her video to feature a Raglan tiny contingent, and I managed to pull together a few of our female Friends of the Shire to go and dance across the sandy dunes of Raglan Galaxy beach. It's happening right now, as I type this; but that's about as in-depth as my field reporting can go because I threw myself off the sim! I know guys can join in the dancing if they wanted but because Galaxy is only a Homestead sim anyway, there's a maximum of 20 avatar limit, and I didn't want me or some other stinky guy taking up a valuable spot!

The video will support the team's plans for February 14th when four sims will be given over for the day for dances; so hopefully I'll be able to update this when Petlove has the video edited together to give you some idea of that craziness that went down today. In the meantime, familiarise yourself with the cause by visiting the One Billion Rising In SL page!

Shifting Sands

I logged in the other day to pick up some notices and was alerted to a situation that was beginning to cause ripples amongst the Shires, and was asked my opinion on it. This was my response, on a notecard I wrote up and sent out to the groups of Raglan. It asks tinies to better 'police' themselves around the Raglan Shire sandbox - better know as the Silica Cubicle, or Silicube for short.

The Silicube Story

First, let's go BACK IN TIME...

*twinkly harp music*

A few years back, if you wanted to build things and learn about how Second Life worked and how you, as a resident, could help it grow, you'd find one of the numerous Linden sandboxes and go and torture prims in it all day long. You might start small, with a lampshade, then progress to a clickable lamp and then onto a clickable Eiffel Tower that fired fireworks out of the top of it. 

However, more often than not, your day would be constantly interrupted by others parking their jet fighters directly on top of your builds or introducing themselves with "hey bro i gona shoot u lol" and then trap you in a cage or attach a red cube to your head that did nothing but scream at you. Classy stuff.

So when Raglan appeared and started to attract many of the fabulous builders who still create here today, the idea was borne that they should have somewhere that they could build in peace, surrounded by like-minded people that they could share ideas with. Hence, a corner of Raglan Shire was cordoned off and became Raglan's very own sandbox: the Silicube.

*more twinkly harp music*

Back to the present!

The Silicube is one of the few constants in the Shire - it never changes; it's always that big square bit of land that doesn't move. That makes it a pretty good landmark to find and hang out in. But it also hasn't changed what it essentially is and what it was always intended to be: a place for builders.

Now, it would be misleading to say that that's all it's ever used for; we've sometimes used the space to hold one-off building events and it's the starting point for our amazing annual Mardi Gras parade. But that doesn't mean that it should be used as a race track or a party venue or a firing range ALL of the time, especially if someone is there trying to carefully figure out how to link two prims together. That stuff's important for anyone who wants to build anything - just ask anyone who ever goes to a Raglan U lesson.

So yes, you can use the Silicube to hang out in and chat with one another in or to show off your latest new favourite toy - but please be respectful of who else is around and what they're doing; they could be learning how to make your NEXT new favourite toy, and you're going to want them to get it right. 

The purpose of it was to illustrate to the residents that whilst the Silicube is a very convenient place to meet and hang out or rez items to show off, it's there for a specific purpose, should builders need an area to work in without fear of being griefed. I'm really proud of the fact that we have a publicly-accessible sandbox area; it reminds me very much of the one that used to be on Limbo in the Isle of Wyrms, a few years ago (if it still there; I must admit I have not ventured out that way for a while). That became my sandbox of choice, not only because it was large and had plenty of available space, but that it was populated by some incredibly talented people/dragons who had nothing but constructive ideas and suggestions to share. I probably learnt more in that sandbox in the few weeks that I could use it than I had in all the months I'd spent dodging missile silos or giant phalluses in Linden sandboxes.

So a situation that could've become bigger than it deserved to be was diffused pretty efficiently, but I'm more proud of the fact that a number of people chose to IM and congratulate me on writing it. Thanks tinies! Now, get back to building.

Political Horror

One of the most fun features of Shocktober, both to see and contribute to, is the annual Haunted Ride of Horrors. It's exactly what you'd expect: an automated 'ghost train'-style ride that takes you through a bunch of horror-themed rooms, each of which has been decorated by a specific individual or team of people. I've been lucky enough to have grabbed rooms each year, often without an idea of what to furnish it with, but that tends to depend on which room I get. For example, the first year I got the last room the ride went through and turned it into a death valley canyon, with a sign indicating that beyond it was a 4000m drop (the ride is placed up high to reduce lag); there wasn't, but I liked the idea of tinies considering bailing out of the car at the last moment to avoid it.

This year I had to settle for one of the smaller, more central rooms. That's fine with me, but meant that I had to think of an idea that was fairly minimal but high impact, so the riders of the carts would be able to get the idea of what I was trying to convey; but of course, it's also got to be something quite horrible! It is a Halloween-themed ride after all! A lot of tinies plump for the traditional-style Halloween decor of blood pouring from the walls, giant spider webs dangling from dusty bookcases and ferocious tentacles shooting up from sewage, so I'm always challenging myself to come up with something radically different from the others.

And it seemed to me that one of the things that has got a lot of people frothing this year has been politics - specifically American politics, but only because UK politicians have been riding the 'feelgood factor' of the Queen's Jubilee and the Olympics and therefore have either been able to bury bad news or have been too busy attending street parties to do any real work. Anyway, I digress. I figured a political-themed room would be exactly the thing someone would not want to see and have thrust in their face - just like a giant spider or severed head on a spike.

More maniacal than Jason and Freddy!

And here it is! A quite sparsely decorated room, featuring only (in terms of prims, at least) a copy of me as some sort of lunatic politician (are there any other sort?) at a podium, surrounded by select buzz slogans - my campaign slogan being "I have only my best interests at heart!" Of course these slogans add to the horror, by demanding that we do away with the things that make up the essence of tinydom.

Scandalous!

My research consisted of me asking in Friends of Raglan Shire group chat, "what could you never give up as a tiny? What are the things that make us tiny?" and then set about destroying my respondent's hopes and desires in bold banners.

Consider these DONE! Mwuahahaha!

I'd recommend going to visit the ride at any time during October, if only to marvel at the exterior; it's a quite wonderful build. But I'd love for you to try the ride itself and take in the ghastly greatness that my fellow tinies have created. It's really quite brilliant and is about as close as we ever come to capturing the lightning in a bottle on this sort of small scale that is the brilliance of the Raglan Artisans. I'm always honoured to be amongst their ranks.

Here's your SLURL! http://slurl.com/secondlife/Heron%20Shire/91/75/4002

RFL

The Raglan Historical Society presents..., originally uploaded by Bear Silvershade.

Here's a fabulous picture of the rather fabulous tiny-centric build put up for the SL Relay For Life event.

I was very honoured to be asked to contribute to the development of this build, but disappointed that my contribution extended to little more than six cubes.

The biggest problem was that when I finally got access to the sims, the build was about 90% completed; when something is that far advanced and you can see how someone else's vision has come together and where's it's going, one isn't really in a position to change it or significantly contribute. I know my six prims were used though and I guess every prim counts in the end!

Shadows In The Sun!

SL9B, originally uploaded by Wildstar Beaumont.

Here's proof from Wildstar Beaumont that our sundial really did work at SL9B! Beautiful capture and such an effective use of shadows!

SL9B Opening - Saffia & Tinies!

SL9B Opening - Saffia, originally uploaded by Victor1st Mornington.

So SL9B gets torn down this week! If you haven't been over yet reader, I suggest you do so before 11.59pm on the 27th! If you can't, feast your eyes on the wonder that it was in this amazing Flickr picture pool.

I thought it was a really great event, one of the best ever birthday events that truly captured all that is good about Second Life and the creative possibilities it presents.

Maybe it was the lack of involvement of the Lindens (and the lack of red-tape and political correctness that follows them), maybe it was the theme that united all of these different communities, maybe it was the incredible psychedelic 8-bit themed main-stage...or maybe that it was packed full of tinies from the very start?

I'm going with that last one.

Raglan Shire SL9B

Raglan Shire SL9B, originally uploaded by Caleb Kit.

Our sundial atop the largest shroom at SL9B. I'm gonna miss this build when we take it down in the next week.

I've already decided I'm going to try and 'replant' the poetry shroom circle; I can accomodate most of them on my home plot on Raglan Commons, and I might sneak a few more around some of the other sims. The poems are so good, and truly capture the spirit of Raglan's community and creativity.

Shroom With A View

SL9B has begun!

Yes, despite Linden Lab's attempt to ensure another one of its big community events didn't happen, the residents have successfully risen to the challenge and have made this year's event their own; in truth, the Lab suggested a 'community' theme should be handled by the community, so less attempted sabotage by the Lindens and more just general laziness on their part.

The annual birthday celebration kicked off at 11am SLT yesterday (Monday), and after Saffia's impassioned opening speech, the tinies were representin' in force with at least a dozen riverdancers making a whole lotta noise!

Our plot is on Jamboree, one of 20 sims given over to this year's event, and in some cases with up to 36 plots on each sim, that's a whole lot of exploring to be done! In keeping with the feel of Raglan as a whole, the Shire SL9B plot is made up of overgrown natural elements - primarily three giant mushrooms, upon which we (myself, Etheria Parrott and Panacea Pangaea) have put out different creative elements from the community. I won't give too much away in that hope that you, reader, get the opportunity to go and visit the plot and play around at it!

The info hut and the community picture display.

The mushroom-head picnic tables.

On the smallest shroom sits three picnic tables (with waffles), where we invite tinies to gather and chat; a ladder above that is our Poetry Slam shroom, where a small circle of mushrooms each hold a poem written by a different member of our community; and an Anywhere Door journey above that is our sundial of events.

The Poetry Slam shroom circle: when clicked, a shroom reads the poem contained within it.

As I said in my previous blog entry, it felt imperative to me that as many tinies from Raglan contributed to the build as we could involve. Although we were limited by the small amount of people who were allowed access to the sims in the building stage, we put out a plea to the group to contribute pictures, poems and free gifts, and it didn't go unheard - we were sent dozens of pictures and a good number of poems.

The Event Sundial: when touched, the dial turns to a specific month with details about that months event.

We've already had a number of other SL9B participants come around and compliment us on our build, which is incredibly kind and generous, especially for a build that developed organically - my only idea when we got our plot was 'it should be on platforms'. I love seeing builds you can interact with and explore, and given that each plot covers a relatively small ground area, the best way to develop that interaction was to go high.

I'm exceptionally pleased with how the build has turned out, and that really is a testament to the community; my own contribution to the development of the build was very minimal - I rezzed a couple of things, sent out a couple of notices asking for stuff - so it really has been the generosity of others that has injected the plot with life. It's fun, colourful, cute and different - exactly how life as a tiny can be! Visit it at this SLURL!

Polly Ellsmere (left) and Bree Himmel explore the plot.

I should really start thinking about SL10B. Or would it be SLXB?

Growing Shrooms

Hello reader! Apologies for my distinct lack of updates on the Second Life front of late - truth be told, it's simply because of my complete lack of activity in-world. My time spent in SL has greatly diminished of late, not through a lack of interest, but simply because RL demands it.

That being said, someone reminded me a couple of weeks ago that it was SLxB time again and inquired as to whether the Shire would be having a presence there again. Seeing that the theme of this year's SL9B event is 'community', I felt it was imperative that we would; after all, it has been said a number of times in the past that the Shire community is one of the strongest and largest on the Grid.

So I'm here at Jamboree, slowly putting the plot build together with the help of my trusted friends Etheria Parrott and Panacea Pangaea, who between them could build, texture and code almost anything. The above picture is just a teaser of what our plot consist of, but I think it fits perfectly with the natural feel of our home sims and offers a good general picture of what our community has to offer all year round. It's an incredibly difficult thing to bottle, as by its very nature 'community' is only really defined by the people who take part in the events, but I'm trying to involve as many tinies as I can by asking for snapshots of tiny life. We'll have a method of hearing poems written by Copper Mistral's Poetry Slam group too.

And as an amazing unplanned bonus, our plot neighbours the plot for in-world percussion group DRUM!

SL9B opens to the general populace on June 18th. More information can be found on the official blog.

Goodbye Tiggs!

Tiggs Linden by Marianne McCann

Some slightly sad news to report: Tiggs Linden, one of the very few (if not only) full-time tiny Lindens is to leave Linden Lab on March 9th.

Tiggs has been working out of the Boston office of the Lab for a number of years but has decided that now is the time to move on to pastures new. "This was my choice. I still believe in Second Life and I think it is a viable, healthy place to be," Tiggs told the Friends of Raglan Shire group. He's off to work for Turbine, developers of some other popular MMO games including Lord Of The Rings Online.

Tiggs will undoubtedly be sorely missed by many around the Grid, but by none more so than those in the Friends of Raglan Shire group. As part of that group, Tiggs would often allow residents to throw questions his way about how things worked (or didn't) or why things happened (or didn't) and would very happily and succinctly answer and offer explanations. It was great to see a Linden interacting first-hand with residents, many of whom had probably never heard from a Linden before, let alone have seen or stood alongside one of them at the many Raglan events that Tiggs would come alone to see.

Tiggs has promised to stay in Second Life though - "I'm just leaving the Lab, not Second Life" - and stay as a tiny too. He also suggested (tongue-in-cheek) that he may teach a class or two at Raglan U, the Shire's in-world learning facility. From FoRS group chat:

[12:51] Toady Nakamura: and imagine the scripting classes you could teach at Raglan U
[12:51] Tiggs Linden: i do know a tad about scripting
[12:51] Morton Wheels: cool :-)
[12:51] mouseplay Resident: loll scripting classses?
[12:51] Toady Nakamura: I knows
[12:51] One Rhiadra: ooo scriptings
[12:52] Morganne Darkstone: oooo...wuld love t'learn lots about scripting...
[12:52] Tiggs Linden: "how to bring a region down"

Thanks for being such a wonderful source of help and support, Tiggs and we all wish you well in Middle-Earth!

Podium Soapbox

Tonight was Raglan Shire's fifth annual Talent Show as part of the Showvember month of activity. It was great fun, as usual, with about a dozen performers from the Shire groups performing various acts including singing, acrobatics, sketches, magic shows, etc. Once again - for the fifth year in succession - I was asked to MC the show; my talent clearly for being able to talk incessantly when required. It's a task that is both easy and difficult at the same time: if you've prepared a script, it's easy enough to just copy-and-paste your text; it's when there are gaps to be filled, to keep the show going that it can get tricky. Still, it seems I have a penchant to be able to say something when needed (whether it's the right or wrong thing). As I told one performer, I'm only the glue to join the acts together; if I fall together, I let them down more than anything.

But I did take the opportunity this year to read off a piece of text that I'd written earlier in the year; bizarrely, it was part of an obituary that I'd written about the number of real life losses that have affected the Shire groups over the past two years - the deaths of Stillpink Sandgrain, Daisyblue Hefferman, Har Dyrssen and Nitzrokk Saru, as well as the alleged loss of Jammers Inaka* - and the impact that they've had on those they were around online.

Here's my oratory from tonight.

Second Life isn’t just a game - it’s an advanced, real-time social networking experience. It allows us to immediately connect with people from all over the globe to share a vast range of interests. 

We can converse with each other as easily and as efficiently - most of the time at least - as we can with someone in the same room. From these connections, communities grow. The Shires themselves have expanded over the past four years from up to 100 members of the Friends of Raglan Shire group within its first 6 months to well over a thousand fellows now.

And it continues to grow; our creativity, technical knowledge, warmth, and general friendliness have made the Shires a wholly enjoyable place to explore and reside in and the community - as a sum of all of our contributions, no matter how small you may feel you have contributed - has been the main reason for that. For me especially, and I hope for you too, it reminds us that we shouldn’t ever take the connections we make with one another for granted. 

No-one person is better than the next; we’re all different and we all contribute in different ways. Whatever difference of opinion you may have with someone else, always be gracious, be helpful and kind and enjoy your time amongst your friends, neighbours and tiny acquaintances. 

That’s always been the Raglan way and it’s made the community one of the strongest, most caring and warm-hearted in all of Second Life.

Then I introduced a group of basement kitties performing covers of Monkees songs whilst a hamster rode on a barrel around them. Never a dull day in the Shires!

*I haven't addressed the Jammers situation, and I don't know if I will here. I deleted my original blog post about her supposed death earlier in the year, not out of disrespect but that it had no relevance anymore when she turned up again. It's a contentious situation, and I appreciate others views surrounding it; all I'll say is that I find it astonishing that those who would say "if only I had one more day with this person to tell them..." can so easily turn that person away when they do return.

Scaling Back

Adelebsen Isle by MarillaAnne

Despite not being especially prolific in terms of building over the past year (due primarily to the distraction of a RL house move), I've been able to rack up a fair amount of sales over the past few months - but never really more than enough to cover my rents. I've paid out for a shop space on Heron Shire (my main store), one on Raglan Shire, a houseboat on Heron Shire for (my wife) Kitti Dumpling, a home plot on Raglan Commons (despite still having my Linden home), a shop on Extrovirtual and a shop on Adelebsen Isle.

I've earned a bit in Second Life over the past five years, but never the kind of amounts that would pay for anything substantial in RL - I did cash out some L$ last year though to buy this for our wedding - and as exciting as that would be, I can't imagine it happening now. Sales in-world, especially for a niche market like tinydom, have slowly ground to a crawl over the past couple of years. There are good days and good weeks and the Tiny Swagtastic $50L Weekend offer has proved to be a great success; but the profits never seem to outweigh the costs and the majority of my sales actually come from the Marketplace - another example that goes some way to proving this point about the closing of ElvenMyst to be true.

So it was with a heavy heart that I decided I'd need to start scaling back on my costs, losing a couple of the Shire properties in favour of refocusing on the others. But another decision has sadly been made for me this week with the news that MarillaAnne Slade and Michmeister Slade can no longer afford to keep Adelebsen Isle running. I really liked what they'd done at Adelebsen Isle, and loved to explore around and see the blend of goods from both tiny merchants and more regular sized folk too; they were able to attract a good number of creators who I'd never encountered before, which is always refreshing. I just hope that both Marilla and Mitch find the energy and enthusiasm to stay around in SL for a while longer; it's one thing to lose a good sim, but quite another to lose good sim managers and creators.

I'm not giving up all in-world presence - far from it, I think there's still a great deal to be gained from having an in-world shop and I love kitting them out! - but I'm downsizing. I'm not alone in doing this; several others have had to adopt a similar approach recently, but I hope that the spaces I free up will be quickly snapped up by someone wanting to call the Shire home or make use of a shop space at the heart of one of the most endearing communities on the Grid.


UPDATE (11/11/11): Well, it seems Adelebsen has had a stay! MarillaAnne has announced that she has found a sponsor to keep the Isle alive for at least another three months!

Reblog: The Shifting Face Of Virtual Reality

Magistrate Till pointed me to this blog post by Wayfinder, a member of Elf Clan, that makes a rather lovely mention of the Raglan Shire, and more specifically the residents who inhabit there.

Reblog: A Crack In The Veneer

Here's an interesting little piece by One Rhiadra about Raglan Shire. Disturbing too. I'm not for a moment suggesting that One is wrong to address the situation she has here, or that she's wrong to post it - far from it, I think it's a wholly brave and worthwhile post. But the core part of the article is potentially damaging to Raglan's reputation and community.

Raglan Shire is a PG sim; always has been and has always abided by that. It's not the only tiny community around, but it's by far the largest and I would argue the one with the most longevity behind it (there were some other small tiny communities before, but many have since disappeared); but I think that one of Raglan's biggest strengths is that it so welcomes diversity from all walks of life for people who just want to have fun in Second Life. People who want to escape drama, escape persecution for their thoughts, beliefs and choice of lifestyle, to be creative, silly, laugh and log off each evening with a smile on their face. As long as someone can bring that into a PG-environment, well in my book, you're welcome to stay for as long as you want. It's not up to any one, two or group of individuals to say how one should live as long as your day to day behaviour towards one another meets the requirements laid down under those PG guidelines. But that really boils down to good manners, and nothing more.

I can't understand these dissenting voices (either in SL or RL for that matter): so what if someone's gay? So what if someone's of a certain religious standpoint? So what if they're of a different colour skin to you? Are they nice and polite? Probably. And how is their lifestyle affecting you from going about your day-to-day business? Chances are, it's not. PG doesn't mean 'treat your guests and residents like they're six-year-olds.'

I recommend that you take a look at One's excellent piece here: What is Innocence?: A Crack In The Veneer

Hippie Hippie Shake

Ready for Wootstock!!!, originally uploaded by Aime Takaaki.

Aime is all dressed up and ready for Raglan Shire's annual Wootstock festival, a weekend of live music and DJ sets. More information and a run-down of performers can be found at the Raglan Shire blog.

I love the retro-feel of this picture though. It's perfect for the event!