Seven or so years ago,

a young woman came into our old shop to ask if she could come in on her day off and help us out.  This has happened on occasion. Usually it's a sweet person imagining their life among beauty and flowers without a clue about the dark underside, described very well by Jane over at Small But Charming recently.
I was that person once, years ago when I was eighteen.  I was working in San Francisco's Financial District on Montgomery Street. Down the block was a Podesta Baldocchi saltellite shop where I spent a lot of my meager earnings.  I inquired one lunch time about working there.  " this business is dirty, cold, hot and hard". I was easily discouraged by this. I cowered back to my little desk in the Risk Experience department of Kemper Insurance, disheartened and waited eighteen more years before I asked again and  someone risked my inexperience.

The young woman who came into my shop had no illusions. I took her on, she became my full time assistant and she now owns her own flower shop in Philadelphia called Falls Flowers.  Miss Peicha, thank you for popping in seven years ago!

My new staff is coming along nicely.  Their strengths are more apparent and I've begun to relax a bit and rely on their individual talents.  But I needed a little more help, so I thought about another internship.
To my surprise, a lot of wonderful young women applied. I had to choose two.  It was hard.  But we've welcomed Katy and Marisa on board at least through the end of the year.

On another note, I'd been taking photos and there was a dreamy fog on all of them.  I couldn't figure it out. So I checked my lense and somehow there was a smudge on it. How it got there, I do not know.
My lense shuts tight when I'm not using it. But I am a messy sort.  Here's a sample of my frustration.