Once when I was a kid I striped down all my toys to see how they work. I was only about 7 at the time and never managed to put them back together. My mother wasn't very pleased!

After years of good service, my Canon 15-85mm EF-s lens was becoming a little warn out and so after watching a video on 'YouTube' on how to do a strip down and repair, I thought looks easy why not give it a good as I had a shade full of tools and years of practise  working on toys and cars. What can be so hard?

So I set about striping down the lens and tightening up the loose screws and finally managed to put it back together. Took me best part of an afternoon. On checking it I found that the Auto Focus wasn't working. Stripped it down again and found that I'd not reconnected the Auto focus level. Another rebuild in the hope that it would now be OK. The sun was setting outside by now and I was hoping to capture one or two images. Sadly the lens had other ideas as sometimes the Auto Focus would only work when it felt like it.  After a few more strip and rebuild attempts  the Auto Focus gave up completely. On the up side my strip and rebuild times were coming down and I could  now do the hole thing in under 15 minutes, I was beginning to feel like an expert.  Finally there was nothing for it but to send it to Canon for someone who knows what they are doing to bring it back to life. When the post man asked if it was worth more than 25 pounds, I lied and said it was worth much more than that and paid for special delivery. What Canon will make of it when they take it apart and fine warn screws,  broken tabs, sellotape and blue-tack holding it all together I'll never know. But here's hoping!

I have added some images from a trip to Norfolk to the Gallery, Hope you enjoy.

Spent a lovely sunny day with family and friends at Harewood House, near Leeds yesterday.

Harewood sits at the heart of Yorkshire, one of the treasure houses of England, the house was built in the 18th century and has art collections to rival the finest in the land in the setting of Yorkshire’s most beautiful landscape.

This summer the 100th edition of the the world's most famous bike race takes place.

Tour de France 2014
Stage 1 of the route will start at Leeds Town Hall and head towards Harewood House then Otley, Ilkley, Skipton, Hawes, Ripon and finishing in Harrogate. Stage 2 starts in York and ends in Sheffield taking in sites such as Knaresborough, Haworth, Cragg Vale, Holmfirth and Holme Moss.

In the coming months I'm hoping to visit some the the places on the first two stages ahead of the Tour de France 2014.

A gentle breeze that weaves it's spell upon your heart

Just returned from a few days in North Norfolk and the Broads, sunshine, blue sky's and a bit of a breeze. 
So much of the North Norfolk countryside  has an untouched feel, with breath-taking views across beaches and fields and a wide expanse of sky - the perfect getaway for me and my camera. 

I'll upload a few images in the coming days on Flickr and Facebook . 

I'll be taking a trip back in time this week to a place that brings back so many happy memories of a time spent with dear friends and kids playing on the beach at Hunstanton, wells-next-to-the-sea and Cromer, North Norfolk. Sadly my kids (all grown up and married them self's)  don't seem to remember any of this now. How the time fly's.

As an old friend use to say,
"don't do tomorrow what you can do today, if you do it today and you like it, you can do it again tomorrow."  ~ Barry Lewin ~

I hoping for a little bit more sun than that of lately and am I asking to much for it to be a little warmer. Hoping to check out one or two nature reserves and capture a sunset or two. Janice may have some other plans!!

"I tend to live my life in the past
                     as most of my life is there."