The autumn is closing in. Yesterday I composted the dying petunia which had given so much pleasure all through summer, and I was reminded that this was one of the last photographs I got from the sickly Canon EF 35-105mm f/3.5-4.5 lens before it threw in the towel and refused all offers of further gaffer tape medicine. Attempts to replace it have proven fruitless. The early AF motors don't go on for ever. Hence my strong affection for manual focus lenses: less to go wrong.