Ashes to Ashes

Yesterday, the UK was a no-fly zone as a cloud of volcanic ash travelled south from Iceland (it affected Scandinavia airspace and some Northern European airports too).
This was not visible from the ground, in fact the sky seemd to be a brilliant blue yesterday, but planes trying to fly through the volcanic ash would experience total engine failure. Not a pleasant thought!

Some flights are now leaving Scotland, but it could be some time before air traffic is back to normal.

But as every volcanic ash cloud has a silver lining, some people are enjoying this unusual occurence- people living near Heathrow can hear birdsong for the first time in years!