It’s always worth a visit to SE Portland’s Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden; this is especially true if you like rhododendrons, as they are omnipresent there.

Taken with my Canon AE-1, still hanging on from the late 1970s. A great little camera and a ton of fun to shoot with, even on a dark and rainy Portland day.

On a cool drizzly early spring morning, there were plenty of beautiful sights in the garden, from honking geese to blooming flowers of various varieties (including, yes, rhododendrons). Oh, and one huge nutria.

Always a fun Portland destination, especially this time of year when many of the plants are in bloom.

Rhododendrons and magnolias and daffodils and countless other flowers were blooming and the aromas were wonderful…

10 acres of lush beauty, filled with many Pacific Northwest plants, most notably of course rhododendrons…

I have the privilege of working every day in the lush, beautiful campus of Lewis & Clark College…

Year-in, year-out, one great spot to escape the rigors of city life, to relax and enjoy nature, is the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in SE Portland...

As always, there were more ducks than you could count, and geese, and for once at least the world's most obese squirrel...

It's a gorgeous little park adjacent to Reed College, and it is packed to the gills with a wide assortment of rhododendrons. And ducks and geese, for that matter...