Brother Cadfael, Brother Oswin, and Brother John visited the roof deck, side balcony, and Cubao New Orleans French Quarter front balcony vegetable and flower gardens. The plants that Rose brought home from Masbate are doing well.

The sky was overcast and ripe with rain after the morning's drizzle. The birds in the dragon tree were all astir and chirping joyfully. Most humans were indoors, and so everything else was quiet and still. All we could hear was the motor pump that fills the water tanks above my nephew's tenement housing.

I need to buy more clay pots and have to get down to it.

Back in the cafe, I saw a table full of patrons glad to be indoors, away from the gloomy weather and into warm lighting and a cozy atmosphere. The kitchen was bustling, steam rising from cooking pots and the cooks and waiters preparing food on plates.

Like the upper branches of the dragon tree, the cafe was alive and busy.