Do you ever wonder what you were doing on this day last year? How about the year before? And the year before that? Now that we have the ability to capture as many moments as we like on a daily basis, it got me thinking about how I spent my day – this day, April 11th – for the past several years. Tracking down the photos was easy. Most of my personal work is in one Lightroom Catalog making it easy to look through years of photos in one sitting. I have them organized by year, then month, then date for quick access. There are even apps and social media features that do this for us too. There’s the Timehop App, and of course on Facebook we can look at our posts from years ago.

The first digital camera I owned was a Panasonic Lumix point-and-shoot, a gem of a little camera, that I dearly loved. It took beautiful photos fast, and it fit in my pocket, kind of like my iPhone today. And on April 11th in 2006, I was in Mozambique, our group working our way up to Vilankulos to celebrate my Sister-in-Law’s 50th birthday (Happy Birthday Carol)! I’m sure the highway is finished now, but for hours we drove on dirt roads as we made our way North from Maputo.

I wished I’d captured April in 2007 and 2008 – and maybe I did – but I don’t seem to have anything for those years imported in Lightroom. I’d like to think that I’d captured something, but more than likely I was busy with work and wasn’t carrying my little Lumix with me, although by this time, I’d also upgraded to a Canon 40D. So the next record I have on April 11th, was over Easter, visiting at my parent’s house. That’s my dog Major at my parent’s old house with Tyler, my Uncle’s old dog, running into the frame.

It seems Major must be my April 11th muse, because he features prominently in many of my photos from April 11th over the next several years. In fact, my cameras seem to gravitate towards the animals in my life on this day.

In 2010, we went for a walk, in shorts! I cant’ remember the last time it was warm and sunny in April, these last many years winter’s grip still in place. We explored an old mill along one of our regular walking routes in Philadelphia that had been around for over 100 years, but is now no more having been torn down the following year.

2011, Bench Monday and I’m wearing sandals and cropped pants! I absolutely love wearing sandals for walking. They are just so comfortable and they really help to keep your feet cool on a hot day. To be honest, though, I could do with a new pair of sandals as the ones that I am wearing in this picture are quite worn now! I have been checking out a few different styles of sandals on the Rank & Style website, and I cannot wait to purchase a new pair. Take a look and let me know which ones are your favorites: https://www.rankandstyle.com/top-10-list/best-comfortable-stylish-walking-sandals.

Also, once again, Major is right alongside me, a yellow flower peaking out!

In 2012, my iphone makes it’s entrance to April 11th, as I captured our explorations of the neighborhood together with the Hipstamatic App, a carpet of cherry blossoms in view. They’ve just started popping out last week, so hopefully we’ll be treading across their pretty petals again soon.

The following year at this time was quite sad. We were watching my parent’s cat and dog while they were away. Gracie their rescue had been sick and on this day that year, I captured her as we waited in the vet’s office to find out the scoop. We didn’t know yet that she had cancer, two large tumors wrapped around her tiny brain. And once again sandals! I love that I captured this moment. Grace still looking up at me, me looking down at her. She was one heck of a kitty, and we were lucky to have been her family there at the end.

The following year, four years ago today, once again we had my parent’s dog, Rodger for a visit. I can’t remember if I posed these two together or if they sat like this, but after capturing it with my iphone, I couldn’t resist grabbing my Mark ii for a better shot!

These two goofballs are best friends, and I love how fluffy and funny they look together here. The next two year I was again with Major out on a dog walk. Although in 2015 I captured dozens of photos of Spring arriving in my nieghborhood, it’s these self-portraits that I love the best. I still had long hair! This is a few blocks from my house and we used to walk around this area often as I could let Major off-leash up on the old train tracks. We can still get there today, but one end has been chained shut, so we rarely get there these days, since it’s not convenient for our circular route.

The following year, my husband joins us once again on a long walk to the pharmacy for 2016. Look at those beautiful redbuds on this bright sunny day!

And finally last year. 2017. I could show you the garter snakes invading my garden, but instead I’ll share my final photo, taken for my daily photo project, The Mug Chronicles, drinking a cup of Sleepytime Tea before bed, probably because I’d forgotten to capture my coffee earlier that day!

Although I don’t know what tomorrow will bring photographically, I do know that I’ll take a photo of my cup of coffee, well, that is if I remember. But I’m sure that I will, just as I know that there will be many other moments full of photographic opportunity. One thing that struck me as I looked through this day is that I loved visiting the past, remember Tyler and Grace, my parent’s old home, getting to celebrate Carol’s birthday together in an exciting place. But I also loved how the other half of the time, I was on a dog walk with Major in my beloved neighborhood Manayunk, the two of us -and sometimes the three of us – together. So although some things changed, they have also stayed the same. I have a feeling that in another ten years time, my photographic memories of April 11th will see something similar, which is comforting in one way, but terrifying in others. But luckily, at the very least, I know I’ll have a camera to capture them.

I encourage you to pick a day and see what you were doing then throughout the years. Maybe even start a photo project based on this day, just to see what happens. And if this is something that you’re already doing, I’d love to hear about it!

Until next time,
Holly ~ Soupatraveler