Poveglia

[Tinkeringbell]

First journal entry! I only just discovered this board, and after answering to the 'what did you achieve on your island today' a few times, I think it may be time to start a journal, to post not only about achievements but also about the small joys of island living.

So, welcome to the journal of Poveglia. An island named after a small island located in the Venetian Lagoon, that has three characterizations that made me think the name was fit for this animal crossing island: Poveglia is an island that was abandoned, deserted, when residents fled warfare in the 14th centure. The island also was used as a quarantine station for over a 100 years in the 18th and 19th century. And the Italian government was looking to develop Poveglia into a vacation island, with a luxury hotel. So, what better name could there be for a deserted island I'm turning into a blooming beach town during a pandemic?

Poveglia came with peaches as native fruit, and with cosmos flowers as the native plants. Of the original first 10 residents, only Hornsby and Patty remain, the rest has already moved on. Without a journal to chronicle events, a lot of Poveglia's history has been lost. But besides people coming and going, and progress adding some bridges and inclines, Poveglia is mostly untouched by time. This is its map:

On the top of the island, near the secret beach, you'll find a luscious orchard. The part east of the river is mostly devoted to a regular forest and flowers. The west side of the map is mostly lawn, that could use more development. On the south, you'll find the villagers living in a beach-front town, each with their own backyard and the shops/resident services close by.

 

[Tinkeringbell]

So, for my first day of journalling, let me tell you a bit more about Poveglia. Poveglia isn't a 'finished' or 'designed' island, and I would love to show a bit of that so people feel a bit less pressure to create the 'perfect' island. I've seen a few threads here in the past few days about people struggling with themes and designing rooms or their island in general. I hope that to some people, these pictures may relieve some of the pressure they feel. I know for others, they'll look like horror. Whatever you prefer is fine, I just wanted to show something that's not 'perfect'.

Poveglia has a number of big 'empty' areas (that are never truly empty because I use them to facilitate quick and easy playing). For example, take a look at the next pictures:

These are pictures of the area outlined in red on the map. They're empty areas that I use to achieve nook miles goals like planting flowers or (fruit) trees, and chopping those trees. I also use it to dump items if I want to empty my inventory, keep materials there when I'm crafting (or finished products, if I'm e.g. crafting a lot of fish baits). Note the ridiculous amount of peaches in the background of the second picture: I hoarded them while island hopping and have been selling them stack by stack whenever the 'sell fruit' nook miles goal pops up. There's often a patch of shells lying around as well, I often only move stuff to storage at night before I stop playing.

In the third picture, you see my simple workbench, a stack of customization kits that's always there so I can grab it whenever I need to customize a tool or complete a nook miles goal (If you haven't noticed by now, I like grinding those goals sometimes). And, the square brown thing on the left is a mini-fridge, there to facilitate quick clothing changes (also, again, nook miles goals but also for fun).

My island may not look the prettiest, but it facilitates my style of play. I think Alfonso got it perfectly right today:

And if you managed to read the entire rambling about island designs, you've earned this reward of two villagers being extraordinarily cute: Hornsby, one of the first residents enjoying a drink, and Tutu discovering a dragonfly while attempting to find a great spot to start picnicking:

 

[Tinkeringbell]

Today's best moment was the moment I got Hornsby's picture. After I found him lounging on the plaza with Alfonso in the morning, in the afternoon I could give him his daily gift and finally got his picture. He's been around on my island for so long, but I've not always been good at gifting my villagers stuff, and I think there was also a bit of 'bad' luck involved since I got the pictures from Alfonso and Hopper first, even though I'm sure I talked with Hornsby a lot more!

I definitely have loved Hornsby from the start though, having him in my town is amazing. Especially with him being in a starter home, that looks a lot cosier than the usual cardboard/shoddy wall combo his 'ungifted' interior is. This is what his house looks like at the moment:

His house has been like that since the start. Lately, I've been thinking about slowly trying to get rid of the peach chair and see if he'll swap it for a log chair if I gift one to him. Same with the paper kite butterfly: While him having a bug in his house suits him, this one might be a bit too big.

I'm not sure how long Hornby has been in my town, with his house looking like that. But this picture, from the 29th of March, shows he was already there when I was celebrating the opening of my upgraded resident services:

The weather was truly lovely that day (not). After that, I gifted Hornsby a few clothing items, and he seriously looks cute in all of them. Here he is wearing a dreamy sweater, the black argyle sweater and a skull tee:

He's had these clothing items since basically the beginning, but most pictures are more recent. He also knows how to dress fancy! He was one of three villagers I had the highest friendship levels with, so he was the one that came to get me for my birthday party, all dressed up in his suit!

 

[Tinkeringbell]

Today, the new month began and the stuff from the Halloween update became playable! I got a spooky chair DIY recipe from Alfonso this morning, and then it was off to Leif to purchase pumpkin starts. Getting Leif two days in a row was kinda disappointing because the pumpkin starts can also be bought at Nook's Cranny (for double the money). The only positive so far is that I saved half the money this way (like I don't have enough XD). I turned the right side of the big empty area I mentioned on Tuesday into a giant humongous pumpkin farm:

There are 216 pumpkin plants in this patch. I had rain to help me water them today, but MeteoNook says I will have to water them myself the rest of the week. Which is okay with me! In the background, you can see Kidd inspecting a fossil I placed. I've been trying to find ways to place more things outside that my villagers can interact with. One of the ideas now is to use fossils in certain places instead of fences, a combination of ammonites, ambers and trilobites might work. The garden gnomes also make for a fun 'fence' if all placed in a single row, and the hyacinth lamps could add a bit of glow. I hope that all of those will attract more villagers than hedges! Here are a few closeups of Kidd inspecting the Trilobite (it's placed on a stone stool):

Besides trying to get my villagers to 'do' more stuff around my island, I'm also still gifting them fruit every day. I'm trying to get the photo of each villager I currently have because I really like all of them. And the photo's just fit so much better into my home than the posters! Today was a day of amazing luck if getting a photo is kinda random like I've seen some people say: I got 2! First I got Deirdre's photo, and then I visited Antonio's home to find Patty there, who also gave me her picture. 5 down, which means there's 5 still to get

Talking about gifts! Someone sent me some bat wings in the mail! They go great with one of my 'original' outfits. The striped sweater was one of the first clothing items I acquired that I really liked. I think I wore this sweater, the basketball shoes and the denim painter's jeans for months as my main outfit, before finding other clothing items I really liked and switching things up a bit more. The black pants are still a big favourite though! Also, in the background, the front of my home and my experiments with fossils and lamps as fencing.

 

[Tinkeringbell]

I didn't get much playtime today. But this moment in the town square really made me smile! The tiny villagers, when they do their exercising, have this split second where they're bent over and all you can see is two floating heads:

I also bought a few costume items that color coordinate with the bat wings and sweater. I took a few pictures of the outfit because I look ridiculous and that makes me smile. Here's me riding a turtle of doom on the beach, and me color coordinating with a few flowers:

 

[Tinkeringbell]

Today was the day my pumpkins were full grown! I planted 216 starts, just to make sure I would get a nice amount of the colored pumpkins as well. I ended up with 18 white pumpkin plants, 25 green pumpkin plants and 22 yellow ones. I am keeping 18 of each plant, so I had to dig up a lot of orange pumpkin plants as well. But I managed to put the white pumpkin plants into their own neat little patch next to my home.

I'm still looking for a nice patch to plant the green, yellow and orange pumpkins. I'm thinking of redoing Hornsby's backyard. He has the nature hobby, yet I gave him a backyard filled with stone things. I've included an old picture to show what his backyard looks like.

Hornsby lives in the home on the left side of the picture. This is an old picture, the right side still shows Carrie's home. She since moved out and Tutu moved into that spot. I started moving Tutu's house today. As you can see in the next pictures, there's very little space near my airport entrance, which makes it an inconvenient spot for larger trades. By moving Tutu's home, I'm hoping to be able to give Hornsby a good backyard but also free up a square or three extra for trades. I'm also planning on moving Alonso's home a few squares to the east for similar reasons.

Right now, Poveglia is a beach town with all houses aligned along the south beach. Tutu is going to be the only exception to that. I moved her home onto the peninsula, which is on the west side of my island. The right side of her home will align with the beaches in front and behind her home. I picked that spot because I don't often use it for other purposes, and it's not in the way of any of the habitual paths I usually walk. And, it's still a very beach-side-y place to put a home!

 

[Tinkeringbell]

Today was also the day I saw several villagers play the street piano I have standing around outside. Which was so nice to see, because I only ever saw Hornsby interact with it twice before. Please don't mind the pumpkin mess, like I said, I like to drop things everywhere if I'm busy playing The most funny thing was seeing Soleil 'play' the piano: Her head doesn't even reach higher than the keys! I do think I should find a spot where I can turn the piano 90 degrees, so I can take better pictures than just from the back! Why oh why can't we rotate camera angles outside

 

[Tinkeringbell]

Today was the day I redid Hornsby's backyard. And it paid off, big time! I never saw him use the old, stone decorated backyard, but tonight he's been wandering around his revamped backyard for hours, even sitting on the garden chair for a snack

His backyard now consists of 4 patches of yellow and green pumpkins (2 yellow, 2 green). After I get tired of pumpkins, I might remove a patch of each colour and put in a single patch of orange and white. For the rest, I kept the decorating rather simple. The purple mums and hyacinth lamps were already there, but I replaced the heavy iron and stone fences with the 'lighter' spooky fences for a more open and less claustrophobic feel.

I planted 4 cherry trees to provide some shade and cover, and I placed two garden lantern as well. I might one day try my hand at making a custom design and putting in some kind of path between the patches of pumpkins, but that's for when I'm very, very bored.

Also note how, now that Tutu's home is gone, I have an extra row of dirt path near my airport, which means more room for trades and welcoming visitors! I've moved Alfonso to another part of the island today, tomorrow I'll move him back but again making some extra space on the right side

I've put the orange pumpkins in between Bettina's and Deirdre's homes. There's just enough room for a single patch of 18. So far, I've been able to run through them and not have them damage like flowers will, which is good because I also often use this passageway to get from the beach to the plaza or to the shops.

And that's most of what I did today, the rest of my online time was spent depleting mystery islands of their resources, which is kinda boring. But you can see part of the results in Hornsby's pictures: Loads of fruit to sell (It's all sold now, I earned about 300k bells).

 

[Tinkeringbell]

Today's the day! My island entrance area is finally roomier! This should make trading with people a little easier. I still have to do some decorating, perhaps put up a spooky arch or something for now. But just look at that view! It also makes this part a great area to receive visitors next time Celeste comes around with a heavy meteor shower: no more houses blocking the view. For reference, here's the old and new situation next to each other:

Also... surprise, surprise, the random barbecue appeared again just after I was done hitting the rocks. About an hour later, I found both Hornsby and Alfonso sharing dinner there... Oh, and Soleil, but she's almost completely hidden behind the barbecue . It's things like this that make me love Soleil and her tiny size even more ❤

As you can see, a lot of my play is after dark. I am definitely noticing some of my decorating is also mostly prettiest after dark. I think this Sunday I will go over the island and replace a few lamps with other decorations, just to make things a bit more lively during the day.

One last cute picture then? I have finally convinced Hornsby to stop displaying his paper kite butterfly in its ill-fitting yellow plastic cage. Fingers crossed it won't return soon!

 

[river]

I am happy to say that since finding this journal I have a new appreciation for Hornsby
what a cute little guy ♥

also love your decorating style, the new entrance looks great and I love that pumpkin patch with the hay beds and the sand box between Deirdre's and Bettina's houses!

 

[Tinkeringbell]

Aww, thank you! ❤ I'm definitely slowly getting 'better' at decorating (okay, I'm mostly just seeing combinations of things and thinking 'hey, I could do that too'), by looking at what other people post here in journals and other threads The sand box isn't really a sand box... it was supposed to be another strip of beach-like backyard behind three villager homes. It does show most some things that are still very much 'me' when decorating: Things in pairs and where possible, arranged symmetrically...

I am planning on redoing the area someday, because I almost never see any of villagers use it, except when they're sitting under the fruit trees. I think Kidd sat on one of the life rings a time or two, but that was it.

(Still love the area now that you've seen the top view? )

 

[river]

Aww, thank you! ❤ I'm definitely slowly getting 'better' at decorating (okay, I'm mostly just seeing combinations of things and thinking 'hey, I could do that too'), by looking at what other people post here in journals and other threads The sand box isn't really a sand box... it was supposed to be another strip of beach-like backyard behind three villager homes. It does show most some things that are still very much 'me' when decorating: Things in pairs and where possible, arranged symmetrically...

I am planning on redoing the area someday, because I almost never see any of villagers use it, except when they're sitting under the fruit trees. I think Kidd sat on one of the life rings a time or two, but that was it.

(Still love the area now that you've seen the top view? )

View attachment 325018View attachment 325017

ooo I love the top view!!! That polka dot kiddie pool is so cute!
I also like the idea of doing shared backyards or larger neighborhoods with a similar style, but yeah it's a shame when the villagers just ignore the stuff you make them lol

My villagers would much rather sit under the trees lining the plaza, blocking everyone's passage, than sit on the actual benches I placed for them IN the plaza... But to be honest I find those little annoyances part of their charm

 

[Tinkeringbell]

ooo I love the top view!!! That polka dot kiddie pool is so cute!
I also like the idea of doing shared backyards or larger neighborhoods with a similar style, but yeah it's a shame when the villagers just ignore the stuff you make them lol

My villagers would much rather sit under the trees lining the plaza, blocking everyone's passage, than sit on the actual benches I placed for them IN the plaza... But to be honest I find those little annoyances part of their charm

Yeah I do like the idea of the shared backyard, especially in this case, when there's very little room to do much more. Those threes and flowers you see at the top of the left picture are on the edge of the path that's in front of my Nook's and Able's. It's also what makes decorating a tiny bit harder because I don't want to put too many items there and lose my shortcuts to the beach. I will probably keep the shared backyard, but redecorate it and get rid of the sand. I'll probably add flower beds, trees, and more log furniture.

I do love the kiddie pool too, even though, when the light hits it just right... it kinda looks like someone peed in the water due to the yellow bottom. I'll try to take a picture on a sunny day to prove it

 

[Tinkeringbell]

While I do know the items used to make these turtles are shell stools, it keeps making me smile whenever I find a villager 'riding' one such turtle. Especially if it's Hopper dressed in a vampire outfit. I gifted him that a long time ago just because I couldn't stand his yellow dragon outfit and wanted him to wear more 'formal' looking things. The vampire outfit definitely was a bit of a miss there, but since it's now October, I'll stop gifting him tuxedos and red anorak jackets until after Halloween. After all, he does make for a cute little vampire

Talking about creepy... I think there's something wrong with Tutu and now that I've seen it, I can't unsee it! If there's any Tutu fans out there, they might not want to open the spoiler.

Spoiler: About what's wrong with Tutu

I saw Tutu sitting on one of the beach rocks today, eating a sandwich. And while I was aiming the camera and whistled at her to look at me, I was creeped out by her eyes. When viewed from certain angles... they seem absent. All I'm seeing in the next picture are gaping black holes where eyes should be:

I now keep seeing this whenever she walks around my town, gaping black holes instead of eyes. Your cute sweater isn't fooling anyone anymore, Tutu!

Last but not least, I've had a rocking chair on a bit of 'useless' space near the beach for ages. I put it there when I was aiming to make my town a 5 star rated town. The decorating strategy was basically to put a lot of torches, campfires and log/wooden furniture outside, including some in spaces where it wouldn't be 'in the way'.

Today, Alfonso was actually sitting in that old, abandoned rocking chair, enjoying the warmth of the campfire next to him (behind the chair) and the beautiful ocean view. I should really see if I can make that tiny nook a bit more special.

 

[river]

I do love the kiddie pool too, even though, when the light hits it just right... it kinda looks like someone peed in the water due to the yellow bottom. I'll try to take a picture on a sunny day to prove it

ah haha I'd wanna see that!!

 

[Tinkeringbell]

So uhhhh. Today was Fishing Tourney day. And I had been a bit over enthusiastic preparing fish bait: I had... a lot ... of fish bait in storage. In the end, I ended up with 990 bags of fish bait. So I decided to start playing this morning at a little past 9, and see how far I could come in getting rid of those. I put all of them outside for easy pickup during the day last week, and off I went this morning!

I had made a simple route from the plaza to the beach. I'm so glad the game allows running run through pumpkins without damaging them! I went up and down that path 216 times at a full run. Once on the beach, after a few rounds I placed down two fossils to mark a spot where I could stand, throw bait, immediately cast my rod, and not have fish swim left or right. This way, I made sure I was always standing in the same spot, and not a little to the left or right messing up those casts. A stretch of 'straighter' beach would've been easier perhaps, but sadly the small beach close to the plaza doesn't have any big straight stretches.

I wasn't the only one going fishing! The entire village was dressed up and ready. But while I stood rather alone on the beach in my silly outfit, they instead opted to almost all gather around the south river exit. At one point, I counted 6 villagers there and caught most of them on camera. Say hi to Tutu, Kidd, Patty, Soleil, Bettina, and the fishing rod of Deirdre who's just out of frame on the right:

Catching all these fish, while running back and forth to start a new tourney, took me about 7 hours, which is almost 4 minutes per round. Including breaks for lunch and stuff, I needed the time from a little after 9 AM to almost 6 PM fully. All in all, I think it's just doable to catch a 1000 fish during a fishing tourney without time travelling, as long as you have everything prepared, ready, and nearby. I did of course also 'waste' a bit of time on keeping statistics. I put them at the bottom of this post, under a spoiler tag.

I am a bit disappointed the game only lets you gather 999 points at a time, all points earned after that is reached are silently discarded. I kept track myself, I earned 1211 points over 107 rounds and 997 fish. So in the end, I should've also spent some time halfway to collect a pocket full of prizes. I am angry that the game doesn't warn you about this, it just keeps saying that the points you earn will be added to the pool, even though that's not happening . Anyhow. Only 1400 or so more fish to go and I will have caught 5k fish, earned my nook miles goal, and hopefully will never have to touch a fishing tourney again!

Spoiler: Fishing Tourney statistics

Number of fish per round	Number of rounds with that amount of fish caught:
4	1
7	2
8	9
9	45
10	48
11	2

Note: The round of just 4 fishes was one without using bait, I did that early this morning after letting quite a few fish that I spawned with bait escape, and I was aiming to catch (close to) a 1000 fish. In the end, it wouldn't have been necessary as I ended up cating 997, using 990 bait, having a few escape and catching a few that spawned naturally at/near my 'spot'.

Total number of rounds:	107
Total number of fish caught:	997
Bait used:	990
Average number of fish per round:	9,31

Total amount of bells made:	1.371.100
Average amount of bells made per round:	12.814
Average amount of bells made per fish:	1.375
Bells spent on entry:	53.000

Total number of points gathered:	1.211
Average number of points per round:	11,3
Fishing rods broken:	8

Total number of prizes won:	99
Amount of fish doorplates:	5
Amount of fish prints:	7
Amount of fish-print tees:	7
Amount of fish umbrellas:	11
Amount of fish wands:	9
Amount of fish rugs:	7
Amount of fish pochettes:	7
Amount of fishing-rod stands:	13
Amount of marine pop walls:	5
Amount of fresh coolers:	7
Amount of tackle bags:	5
Amount of fish-drying racks:	9
Amount of anchor statues:	7

 

[river]

omg!!!! your fishing tourney game is truly superior, I can't believe the amount of bells you made!! maybe I should start taking this event more seriously...

also, very cool of you to share the statistics you collected, they're very interesting!

 

[Tinkeringbell]

omg!!!! your fishing tourney game is truly superior, I can't believe the amount of bells you made!! maybe I should start taking this event more seriously...

also, very cool of you to share the statistics you collected, they're very interesting!

I mean, you can probably make the same amount of bells any day CJ is visiting, and probably more if you fish in a spot like the pier, or depending on the season and the presence of certain pricier fish. It will probably also a bit quicker as you won't have to deal with dialog every 10 or so fish, but you can fish until your pockets are full (so, 39 fishes and a rod).

 

[river]

I mean, you can probably make the same amount of bells any day CJ is visiting, and probably more if you fish in a spot like the pier, or depending on the season and the presence of certain pricier fish. It will probably also a bit quicker as you won't have to deal with dialog every 10 or so fish, but you can fish until your pockets are full (so, 39 fishes and a rod).

I'm too lazy to fish normally haha
Fishing Tourney days give me that extra motivation to actually do it!

 

[Tinkeringbell]

I'm too lazy to fish normally haha
Fishing Tourney days give me that extra motivation to actually do it!

That's true, same here!