Kidnapped Dragon Tree

Killer translations always start with a phone call and end with my head spinning. When it's over, I'm left with a mental hangover from the constant gruelling concentration late into the night and again early in the morning. I need a drink!

I got a nasty one on Wednesday. That means I missed my boat day (Thursday), got insufficient sleep two nights in row and now, Friday, I feel like I've been trampled by a rodeo bull. But it's over.

After lunch I took a long walk to Paimogo under an amazing sunny sky and came back feeling as though I could do it all over again.Walking will cure just about anything.

It's such a magnificent sunny day that I decided to sit in the yard for a while. Our garden has various brushes and trees, but there is one that is special. It's special because we brought it from the Azores in our hand luggage nearly two years ago while visiting this wine museum on Pico Island.

Grandpa dragon tree on Pico Island

At the time I was about to translate/revise all the nine official guidebooks for the Azores, so I thought a trip there would come in handy.

Anyway, while we were at the wine museum, we found a cluster of small dragon trees and decided to bring one home. Since they can live for up to a 1,000 years, I thought it would be an incentive to live to a ripe old age watching it grow.

It was about 6 inches long, but look at it now (the one in the middle between the rocks).

Infant dragon tree kidnapped in the Azores

Now, I know what you're thinking, "that doesn't look like a dragon tree at all." In the beginning I too began to suspect that we'd been swindled, even though we didn't pay anything for it. But, according to dragon tree aficionados, they only start to branch out after about 10 years and grow very slowly.

Moral of the story, I hope I live long enough to at least sit in its shade some day.