Quite a dramatic headline and certainly one that we have never had to write before.

All hampers and gift baskets dispatched today will be delayed by up to 24 hours as a result of the volcanic eruption in Iceland on Thursday morning. The ash has drifted south from Iceland throughout the day.

All British airports have now been closed so there will be no flights of any nature until 12 noon tomorrow according to the MET Office as of 16:00 GMT. The republic of Ireland has closed its airspace too. They have now been joined by Belgium, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Any customers affected by this unusual phenomenon have been contacted. Obviously we will not be dispatching short shelf life baskets on the express service today to the United Kingdom as they will not arrive tomorrow, thus would have been sitting in a warehouse over the course of the weekend. With the warm weather, this is not something we wish to see happen.

Customers can advise us if they wish to cancel or we can reschedule delivery and contact the recipients and explain the circumstances.

The road service has not been affected so standard deliveries to the UK and Ireland are not affected.

We expect to be able to resume the next day service to the UK and Ireland tomorrow assuming that the volcanic ash cloud has passed further south of London. So orders placed up to 15:00 GMT Friday will be delivered on Monday.

Should any of our customers be in any doubt, please do not hesitate to contact us by phone, email, skype or via our online chat option.

Basketsgalore