Twilight Zone?

I woke up today and through the haze of coming to what passes for "consciousness" before 12 noon, I heard on the radio about flights being cancelled in the UK due to a cloud of volcanic ash. HUH?? I wondered if it was a belated April Fool! But apparently it's true! The ash cloud is emanating from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland. Due to the danger of aircraft sucking in particles from the cloud which would damage the engines causing catastrophic failure, all flights in the UK have been grounded. Not sure now if some in the South of the country (England) are beginning to operate but it's been announced that all flights in Scotland will remain grounded for today at least!! Blimey! Met office info here.

The ash cloud is higher up in the atmosphere so can't see anything here in Orkney, though whether some of it may fall to earth over us who knows. Last summer cars were covered in sand in Kirkwall which was allegedly sand from the Sahara blown across on strong winds!!

Isn't nature amazing?? And scary...... and wonderful!