FULL FLOWER

Those lucky enough to own a 2022 Ansel Adams wall calendar open to April can view dogwoods blossoming copiously in bright spring rain above Tanaya Creek in 1950’s Yosemite.

In 1950’s Old Belfair Highway, the Union River a hundred yards behind my house looked like the Adams photo in springtime, but the dogwoods were less abundant, more shy.

It takes an Ansel Adams to coax dogwoods’ brilliant blossoms to radiant stardom.

I wonder if he ever slipped out of his work-a-day photographer’s gear and into the icy waters of Tanaya Creek the way I and my buddies would slip into Union River and pretend it wasn’t freezing our nuts off?

At his age? Probably not.