Boss Kicks.

A guy can never have too many pairs of really good shoes -- boss kicks as we used to call them. These ECCO's fill the bill. My dogs are mighty safe and comfortable as they fill the shoes.  Bought two pairs 'cause I liked them so much. 

Little Lake Calhoun Sailors, Home from the Sea.

Lucky ones, these mighty mite Lake Calhoun sailors in their little prams with battened lateen sails and more than adeqquate personal flotation devices.  These boys learn hiking and tacking early in their racing careers, navigate by checking Calhoun Beach Club and perhaps catching a glimpse of the IDS Tower.  The class racing season ends the last Friday in August each year, and I came upon these mariners just after they'd slid across the final finish line, to the sounds of air horns blaring and muffled applause.  Wait 'til next summer, many of them seem to say, all except the young man in the foreground who won every race I watched.

Curtis "Jenny" Takes Flight in MN History Center.

History buffs agree: this WWI replica "Jenny" is the perennial favorite exhibit in St. Paul's Minnesota History Center.  Built to scale, and with its rich history time-line on plaques encircling the rotunda, one cannot help but be impressed by this TINY airplane and its HUGE impact in the century since Armistice Day.

It's safe to say that commercial aviation in America might never have taken off without the "war surplus" Curtis Jenny .  Check out this exhibit, soon.

Santa Gives Thumbs-Up to Long Lake Tree.

The ornaments on the 2013 tree are wooden, hand-painted, passed down through the generations, and hung with love by Hadley, Oliver and Duncan.  The lights, however, are from True Value in Long Lake, strung by Poppina some weeks back.  All the loot under the tree is from friends, family and loved-ones, via Santa and Rudolph. We are about to unwrap the bonanza and remind ourselves just how blessed we are.  Merry Christmas to one and all!

Big Bird. Gluten-Free Stuffing. Yummmmm.

You're looking at the beginning of the Thanksgiving dinner layout. Two drumsticks, the moist GF stuffing, and a very classy platter assure the kind of yummy meal our Grandma's used to whip up back mid-Century.

I snapped this foto before Jason had sliced the white meat, added the mashed taters and the steamed broccoli.

Poppina and crew, including Ali, Hadley and the Boys, outdid themselves -- though I wish I'd taken a pic of the fam damily chowing down around the dining room table.

Hope all readers of Poppy's blog enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday as much as we did.  And here's wishing you a very Merry Christmas as well.

Exploring "Prohibition" at MN History Center.

If you like booze, if you enjoy history, if you ever dated a Flapper Girl, then "The Rise and Fall of Prohibition" exhibit up now at the Minnesota History Center is your cup of tea. Or, shot of rye.

Personality profiles -- Meyer Lansky and Al Capone -- lots of black + white period footage, old cars and motorcycles, even step-by-step instruction for learning "The Charleston," this is your kind of party.

My time was limited the day I visited:  I'll definitely go back for a night cap.

Last call!

Happy Holidays Terry + Holly of Budget Printing.

Good pals at Budget Printing and  Awards in Long Lake, MN send you best wishes for the season. Old Poppy relies on Budget for all printing needs -- cannot recommend them more highly.  Merry Christmas Holly and Terry (and Karla and Cindy, too, though they didn't make the foto).

Columbia Sportswear Christmas Elves Serve Hot Cider.

Out front of the Columbia Sportswear flagship store on Hennepin Avenue in Uptown Minneapolis today, Santa's little helpers were serving hot cinnamon cider off their "icicle tricycle."  The ladies were attired in the latest and and smartest outerwear for distaff elves, while the gent, in a bold red layered look, comped passers-by with discount store coupons to make Christmas shopping a breeze.

As for the Icicle Tricycle I learned there is only one of them, it travels to all Columbia Flagship stores, and even makes the trek overseas.  There is generally an assigned Columbia Crew, though outside CONUS local help is generally hired to work the deal.

I asked if I could hire on to pedal the three-wheeler.  I'm filling out a job application tonite, and will specify a locale where the temp never drops below 50-degrees.

Lake Minnetonka from Lake Street, Wayzata.

Signs, tracks, bare trees, and setting sun over calm and beautiful Lake Minnetonka. Today has been a exceptional Black Friday, but cold, cold, cold!!

Weisman Art Museum, U MN Campus, 11/24/13.

With a James Rosenquist massive mural as backdrop, Grandma B, Poppina and I get started today with our tour of the Weisman Art Museum on the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota.

Boy, was there a lot of art to enjoy: Mimbres Pottery;  works by Marsden Hartley; a room-ful of classic Korean furniture; stunning portraits of young Somali men, active in service to their communities; and on and on it goes.

That was inside the WAM.  Outside there's an exceptional exhibit of public art installations, 25 of which in particular are being celebrated by WAM and the U.  With temps in the 20's and a wind chill lower than that, we normally intrepid art fans wimped out and instead of cruising the campus, we watched an excellent video loop of the public art, instead.

Me and a Cozy Pooch, E. Lake St., Wayzata, MN 11/23/13.

When Britania Ruled: Bombay Britches Gurkha Shorts.

Remember the Gurkhas?  Fierce indigenous fighters on the side of the Brits, protecting the Khyber Pass and a great deal of the Queen's Empire in Ceylon, In-ja, Madagascar, Malaysia, Burma, and far-flung islands throughout the East.   The Gurkha's were special, and so were their uniform shorts back in the day.

Years ago I found hundreds of pairs of "Gurkha Shorts" in a surplus store on Canal Street in lower Manhattan. Shorts were, brand new, in pristine shape -- bundled and baled, wrapped in water-resistant paper with burlap overlay, for sale at $2.00 per pair.  The shop owner gave me access to the attic, and I climbed over the bales to my heart's content: taking in the aroma of an era now gone, and imagining the battles and dominions these uniform shorts might have seen.

Not only did I acquire bales and bales of the olive drab shorts -- made of the highest quality Egyptian cotton, big, wide waist band, deep front pockets, pleated and blousey and roomy around the thighs --  but the shorts came in khaki and white as well.  Each branch of the British Military in the Far East seemed to have its own style and color.

In time I sold hundreds of pairs of Bombay Britches.   Advertising in the classifieds of magazines like Rolling Stone,  I priced the shorts at $17.95/pair, built awareness, and sold a ton of product.  My money back guarantee and personal thanks-for-the-business note seemed to produce repeat sales far beyond my expectations.

My shorts ran out just as retailers like Banana Republic began to sell their own version of MY Bombay Britches !! It was a helluva run and a lot of fun while it lasted. Thanks to any former customers who might be reading this blog, and to R. Scott Samuel of Southern Pines, NC, who designed my ads and promotion material.

PS - Thanks to my brother Joe Hoyt of Miami, FL, who found the old Bombay card in his attic, and reminded all of us what the glory days of short pants were really like!

Me and Arty Didact and Mr. Arty D.

At the uber-creative handmade show last weekend at Minneapolis's Book Arts Center, Sharon Parker, a.k.a Arty Didact had one of the most impressive exhibitions I saw. Here she is, behind her display, and in between her hubby Craig Cox, and yours truly, old Poppy.

Sharon's remarkable talents extend to illustration, calendar making, witty gifts, hand-bound books, and much, much more.  If you ever get the chance to shop "Arty Didact" at one of Sharon's shows, plan to spend big and get even bigger pleasure in the process.

Dan's Got an Eye for the Alhambra.

My good buddy Dan and his wife just returned to the Twin Cities from a two-week trip to Espana. Ole!  

They saw all the sights (like the fabled Alhambra pictured here), hung out in the coolest, most sophisticated cities -- Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla, et al -- and treated me to an occasional e-mail update and a superb pic from time to time.

Readers of the Poppy Blog know how much your humble blogger here enjoys taking and posting fine photos. And while I think we give a pretty decent accounting of ourselves with home-grown talent, I sure am glad that Dan came along.

Buddy Dan is an artist, designer and craftsman, you see, and he has a remarkable eye for just the right shot.  What do you all think?