Hi there,

My name is Bert de Ruiter. I was born in 1958. I'm married with my lovely wife Vera and we have a son called Ricardo, who is now 20 years of age.

Ricardo is the reason why I started collecting minerals in 2005. He had a subscription to a magazine about minerals and was so fascinated, that he joined our local geological society, being one of the junior members.

His society organized several excursions and because he was under age, I had to accompany him during this excursions. After two of these excursions I was captivated by the Rock-hounding virus.

Since April 2009, I'm a board member of the Strahlen Foundation and since 2011, maintaining the content of the websites www.strahlenfoundation.com and doing the daily procedures to keep it's forum running.

I prefer self collected minerals or minerals I traded with good friends or search buddies. I have no special area of interest, but most of my mineral stuff comes from Germany, just because from where I live, it is the closest area to search for minerals.

I collect almost everything, cabinet pieces, hand pieces and micro mounts. I prefer micro mounts, because this small pieces can be so very beautiful.