Community tucked into a forest
Bella Vista, stretching across 54 square miles of hills and hollers covered by trees, is dotted with pockets of human infrastructure resting within the natural world. That’s much different than a lot of cities, where pockets of natural areas are tucked in around the houses.
Carolyn Sulhoff said she moved to Bella Vista from Texas last April and, as a hobby photographer, has been given a lot of opportunities for shots.
“I like all the nature and wildlife, love to do animals when I can find them. They’re everywhere here.”
She likes going for unusual angles, she said, and things other people might not see, and she has a lot of good subjects to work with. Right out her window, she said, she can see birds and snakes and groundhogs. And sometimes, she said, her cat is happy to model for her as well.
Bugs, she said, also make great subjects — even if they’re often overlooked.
“(Many people) look at the flower but never see the bee that’s on it or the ladybug,” she said. “To me that’s just as pretty as the flower.”
Getting good shots of wildlife, she said, can be tricky. One needs to pay attention and find the creatures’ habitat, she said, and also plant themselves in it for a while and wait for that perfect moment — and of course, catch them unaware.
“It’s just whatever you sneak up on, cause you’ve got to sneak up on them,” Sulhoff said.
Jennifer Steger said it’s very different from her old home in San Diego — a mostly man-made environment with no shortage of noise and traffic.
She moved to Bella Vista , in May, she said, after looking at northwest Arkansas. She got a house near Blowing Springs with an empty, natural lot to the side and hardwoods growing behind it.
“For me it was an absolute no-brainer that I wanted to be in Bella Vista,” she said. “I got here just before everything started to bloom . ... There are dogwoods, there are redbuds.”
She’s still working as a human resources director for an IHOP franchise in Southern California.
At her new home, she said, she sits on her porch and watches the life in her immediate vicinity instead of turning on the television.
She sees and hears squirrels, deer, woodchucks, groundhogs, toads, turtles, lightning bugs, all sorts of birds and red foxes she said.
The foxes, she said, live under a neighbor’s porch. They caught her by surprise when she heard them scream, she said.
“It was kind of like the scene from ‘My Cousin Vinny,’” Steger said, “where they’re hearing the screech owl.”
She wasn’t sure what it was at first and considered calling the police, she said, but the neighbor explained she was hearing foxes.
The deer, she said, are quieter, and they’ve cut a path to her back yard, where they occasionally pass through.
Steger said she’s a big fan of birds as well. She’s put up suet feeders to give them more incentive to come by and fed them seeds and meal worms. She’s learning about the local birds and how to identify them, she said, with some help from an app on her phone.
The feeders, she said, have brought in blue jays and pileated woodpeckers — the inspiration for Woody the Woodpecker — though she’s yet to see any bluebirds.
“I have not attracted a bluebird yet. I know we have them,” she said. “I’m determined to attract bluebirds.”
In hopes of bringing out bluebirds, she said, she’s purchased bulk packages of meal worms.
Unfortunately, she said, the feeder has also attracted thieves who stole an entire feeder.
“I actually had my first burglary here,” she said. “It was a raccoon.”
In addition to the feeders, she said, she’s set up bat houses in the front yard — which she hopes will attract new residents soon. She’s also interested in, time permitting, getting a small stream with waterfalls to attract more frogs.
She likes just about any wildlife she can surround herself with, she said, with few exceptions.
“Ticks and snakes are the only thing that worry me and I’m pretty sure I am single-handedly keeping the repellent industry alive — I usually walk out in a mushroom cloud of it,” she said. “But I haven’t had a tick, so I’m pretty happy.”
Yoga, she said, has been supplanted by tick checks, and she’s still staying active other ways — cycling the Razorback Greenway and hiking Blowing Springs and snapping photos, for instance.
“I should have come here 20 years ago,” Steger said. “I’m home. I don’t want to leave.”