Day 12

Food is expensive in the US, more so than I was expecting and many incomes are low.  In the run up to Thanksgiving, there are a number of initiatives in Reston in addition to the regular foodbanks.  At D's office they have all been issued with a large brown paper carrier to fill and take back with a list of suggested items - mostly staples such as rice, pasta, tinned soup, pasta sauce, tinned meats etc.

I was reading this morning about a woman who started and writes for a very successful US parenting community blog (Scary Mommy) which has launched a charity as a result of posts to the blog to bring together those who need help to provide a Thanksgiving Dinner for their families and those who can donate to help.  It is amazing what can be achieved using the web to bring people together.

This afternoon I walked to the local supermarket, the aptly named 'Giant' and met there a man who was collecting for the Salvation Army's Thanksgiving support for families.  He was quite a character, well dressed for the cold as if he knew about living rough but with a very fetching red Salvation Army apron over the top.  I didn't like to ask him to take his photo so just one of the supermarket itself:

On a completely different note, on my walk to the supermarket I passed the following:

This is by the side of a four lane parkway and with a temperature this afternoon of 42 degrees F, the only visitors were some finches who were collecting the last of the seeds from the thistle and teasel, but one to watch in the Spring  perhaps (in the meantime need to brush up on my knowledge of Monarchs).