Who remembers the year 2009? This image was taken that year.

Who remembers the massive dust storm that covered the east coast of Australia and reached New Zealand and beyond? This image is the start of that dust storm.

When I look at this image, I marvel Nature’s artistry: the brightness and sharpness of the colours; how green the trees are; the yellowness of the slide and the playground apparatus; the many shades of red and brown. I gaze in awe at the majesty and power of Nature, and am humbled at man’s petty attempts to tame her. I trace fat billows and curlicues, admiring their intricacies and changeability as the dust billows ever upwards.

Then I remember images of Brisbane and Sydney buried beneath the choking blanket. Towering buildings, iron lace bridges, and unending roads – smothered. The arrogance of puny human attempts to mould the landscape to conform to an unnatural ideal wiped from the face of the land. The beauty of the birth was no more.

But the image, recorded for prosperity the very beginning of a marvel that occurs perhaps once in any lifetime, and renders any artist mute, pen and brush useless.