Sunday, May 31, 2009

Going back to the well, we are visiting Falling Water Falls on Falling Water Creek, east of Ben Hur, Arkansas, and not far from Pelsor. This is not the first time Falling Water has graced these pages. We featured the falls originally in the March 16, 2008, Photo of the Week offering. We will probably do it again. After all, if you listen to your favorite song until you wear the bearings out of it, repeatedly gobble up your favorite fare, and wear your favorite jeans, you might as well ogle (and listen to) a favorite waterfall time and time again as well.

The falls are never quite the same, so there is always something new to see, even if it is only the slightest difference. This time, the water level was a bit higher than normal, leaving the big trees at the base of the falls just barely high and dry. A couple of days before, the same shot would have required knee-deep wading instead of the ankle-deep splashing this shot required. A few days more and the water will have receded closer to the falls. Sometimes a blind hog does indeed find the acorn.

Falling Water is popular and more so from Memorial Day through the end of the summer. In these parts, it is assumed you have Divine Permission to go to the swimming hole. And sure enough, when I arrived at the scene, swimmers were there.

A mother and her brood of offspring and little friends were just concluding their dip when I arrived. While I was shooting, another family made the scene. I offered to shoot them in front of the falls with their cameras. They took me up on my offer. During the ensuing conversation they allowed as how they had run upon a black bear while hiking in nearby woods earlier in the day. They reported that they and the bear took evasive action simultaneously. Probably a good thing.

There is more good news for visitors to the area around Pelsor (Google is calling it Sand Gap) at the junctions of Arkansas Highways 7, 16 and 123. That junction is the home of Hankins Country Store, founded in 1922. The store is the archetypical country general store. Wood floors, pot-bellied wood stove, the whole nine yards.

A couple or so years ago, Don Hankins, the owner-proprietor, made the decision to close the store. I’m certain he did it with a great deal of reluctance. Don, a likable man, and his store were legendary among travelers and visitors to the area. Well, Don’s niece has re-opened the store. It even has a web site. Zippadee do dah, zippety-a, the store is back.

Old friends, old dogs, old shoes, old stores, and old waterfalls. You gotta love ‘em.

N O T E S:  
Nikon D300 • Tripod mounted • Sigma 10-20mm D, DC USM at 10 mm (15 mm focal length equivalent in 35mm), 1/20 @ f22, ISO 160 • Feisol CT 3342 Tripod w/ ARCA Swiss Monoball.

More waterfall and out in the boondocks pictures this week on our blog, plus a visit to a historic and very remote cemetery. See it all at Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind.

Click the jump wings to see the previous Photo of the Week.

Click the camera for an index to every Photo of the Week.

Most of the time, there is more to the Photo of the Week story than can be told in an essay. And most of the time there are more pictures to be seen. Presuming that some folk will enjoy being privy to this trove of information, I have created a blog, “Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind,” where I am showing and telling “the rest of the story." There are also some blatantly commercial mentions of some of the things we do to earn our beans and taters. Click on the Weekly Grist logo and go to the blog.  — J. D.