I noticed while playing recently I play with my fingers sort of high up and not down more. Odd I never noticed this before but I guess bad habits are sometimes hard to spot and are normally seen by others.  Anyway advice om how to correct this and get out of this type of habit?

Ugh!  I have a flyaway pinky that I would just as soon put a paper flag on.  As far as I know, the only way to keep your fingers from flying off the fingerboard is to practice doing slow scales over and over, concentrating on keeping the fingers low over the strings.  Forced retraining sort of.  Don't expect it to cure the problem quickly though.  Been practicing exactly that same drill on a guitar.  Some days are better than others.

Some start up exercises...warmups are good for this. Makes you think about this bad habit right from the start. One of the things I was taught are finger taps. No bow use...put it down. Position your violin in a good hold that your comfortable with...I would try and hold the violin up and straight out..so your looking down the fingerboard towards the scroll. Your left upper arm down to your elbow should be positioned under the violin..this will allow the fingers of the left hand to be able to raise up and positioned over the fingerboard. Make sure you have your left hand at the wrist turned towards the neck of the violin and that your left wrist is STRAIGHT...if your wrist is pancaked and bent in towards the neck and rib of the fiddle then you will never be able to get good finger motion and the TIPS of the left hand fingers will not be able to make contact with the strings for good intonation. Go to R.ToddEhle.com or violinlab.com for finger tap exercises. Use a metro with this as well so you can start slow and then pick up the tempo...keep the fingers close to the fingerboard, maybe 3/4 of an inch away. Good luck.
Stay tuned. DIane in SoCal

I wouldn't worry about it unless it is your major problem. If it is your major problem, you have to retrain your muscles. If I had this problem, I would do a couple of things. First I would write "KEEP FINGERS DOWN" on a piece of paper. I would write with a large magic market and the text would be BIG. I would post it where I would be forced to see it when I practice or play.

I am becoming a big believer in working on one problem at a time. Start out by periodically playing a 1 octave scale. Only lift fingers when it is absolutely necessary. Over time, gradually increase the tempo.

Only worry about the problem you are working one. The human body is amazing. I am always surprised by how quickly it can learn. It seems to instinctively do things in a ergonomic manner, but we force it to do something else.

Dick Hauser again. One more thing. Slow your playing down for a while. Not just for the 1 octave scale, but for everything. You will probably be surprised how quickly the problem goes away.

Thanks everyone.