Still snowed in! Have had to cancel the Tuesday portrait session, so the 21 talented artists who usually show up to portray the sitter in whatever medium they choose will have to do a self-portrait or get their spouse or dog or cat to sit. A pity tortoises have hibernated, because they would clearly be best, a cross between an animal portrait and a still life.

Talking of tortoises, reminds me that years ago when we had three of them - this is a very sad true story - when we lifted them out of the snug straw and crumpled paper in their normal hibernating box, they looked rather glassy eyed. All three of them. After tucking them back in for a few days, they still looked the same. Not sure if they were dead or alive, I buried them up to their wizened old necks under a bush hoping that if they were alive they would scrabble out. But each time I bent down to check on them it was the same. Three inert tortoise heads with glazed eyes stared blindly back at me. See, I told you it was sad.

Today I am languishing indoors thinking up another good invention which is how to program ones car go from A to B by itself, so that you can have a kip as you travel along. Until the finer details of that one have been sorted out, the picture above shows another idea for the advanced life drawing group: the trampoline session.