Blood Rain, Heesch, Netherlands

I'm intentionally not identifying the main subject on this photos because I actually want to discuss the sand in this scene. For the spider, please visit this post:

This is a magnified view of the edge of our garden table, taken on August 8, 2018, one of the hottest days in the Netherlands in recorded history. The fine-grained sand you see on the table is sand coming all the way from the African Sahara Desert. Powerful storms in the Sahara can sling up fine sand kilometers high up into the atmosphere. Then, depending on wind direction, it regularly reaches Europe and rains down.

This is a relatively common occurrence in southern Europe, yet very rare for it to reach a country as far north as the Netherlands. Since 1900, less than 20 cases have been formally confirmed. It is speculated by many people to occur far more often, yet often they mistake pollen raining down from the air with sand. Hence, you need a formal weather report to be sure it is indeed "Blood Rain" (or "Wonder Rain"). Here's the report (in dutch):
https://nieuws.nl/algemeen/20180807/saharazand-dwarsboomt-hitterecord/

The report mentions about 10.000 tons of sand about to rain down on the Netherlands (the report is one day before this photo), the equivalent of 500 truck loads.