You have to admire the commitment of this magnolia tree to flower. Growing between a giant typewriter eraser and a confused bronze work by Miro, it set buds before last week’s snow storm. The resulting flowers have been browned by a series of freezing nights.

In the nearby National Gallery, a great collection of portraits by Cezanne with unsmiling faces look without interest at museum visitors.

In a normal year the Tidal Basin entrance to the Martin Luther King memorial would be pink with cherry blossoms. But this year the the limbs of cherry trees reaching over the basin waters are still bare. The trees still have a stark beauty on this sunny afternoon. We find two great blue herons, apparently immune to the attentions of tourists, sunning themselves near the Jefferson Memorial.

The Cathedral at home in Juneau is tiny—the smallest one in America. So I am a little lost in the gothic wonder that is Washington’s National Cathedral. Outside bright afternoon sun robs the gargoyles of detail. Inside it would be too dark to read without artificial light. But as the stain glass windows in Juneau’s diminutive cathedral do on sunny days, those in the National Cathedral cast abstract patterns of color on inside walls and floors.

The wind chill is low enough for Alaska and there is snow on the ground even though we are on the edge of the Mason Dixon Line. After walking along the Mall, we drop into the Hirschorn sculpture garden. Yellow and purple crocuses have broken through the snow at the feet of Rodin’s Burghers of Calais. They remind me of cut flowers laid in testament to the Burghers’ brave sacrifices.

A little further on, we spot a trio of blooming cherry trees, the ground over their roots still covered with snow. We are grateful for this brave show of beauty swaying gently in a north wind.

We left Aki in the rain forest because she hates to travel on airplanes. We left Alaska for Washington D.C. so we could walk along flowering cherry trees on the National Mall. Last night Aki’s other human and I rode the Metro from the airport as sleet collected on the car’s windows.

This morning I enjoyed a snowy walk to the store for coffee and bread as fresh wet snow coated the branches of each cherry tree.