The eleventh hour

This guy's been selling poppies in the High Street for at least a week and a half.  I've kept thinking, 'Shall I blip him?  Nah!'  Finally today, at the last minute, I asked him if I could.  It is, after all, the 11th of the 11th today and it's probably the last day he'll be here (I understand it's going to pour tomorrow and by Sunday it's too late).

He was very willing to pose and chose to hold the collecting boxes up like this.  I've put him in sepia because of the hat I think, and the slight showman's smile.  He was a nice guy but somehow this image strikes me as slightly weird.

Is the poppy a political symbol?  FIFA thinks it is.  I hope it's a symbol of Remembrance for all soldiers killed at all times.  Did the overseas visitors who saw the poppies in the moat of the Tower of London think it was a particularly British thing?  I just don't know.

Have a good evening and start of the weekend  xx