I am Ron Teunissen, born on august 13, 1959 married (april 17, 2009) with Carla de Boer, together we have four children. I am working as an assistent pharmacist in the Royal Dutch Army, and been on tour for six times.

I came in contact with this hobby during a tour in Afghanistan in 2003. I brought back home a number of "blue stones"  which I bought on the local market (on the base). This magnificent lapis lazuli is the ultimate cause of all this.

lapis lazuli on the market in Kandahar 2006                            Mineral trip in Poland ( Septarie )

Back in the Netherlands I visited some internetsites to find some information about the Lapis, and  ofcourse:  ' what is it worth'! I quickly found a site of the Dutch Geological Foundation (GEA).

On the first evening of the season I visited the club for the first time, it was located in a small town, Leusden. There was a black box with blacklight. The stones in the box where glowing magnificant! The box and stones where for sale! I don't know how, but I went home with the blacklight display and 136 of fluorescent rocks.  The new hobby was born.

Of course I became a member of GEA and now every year we are going on excursion with that association to search for minerals somewhere  in Europe.

The collection is still growing and registered in an Access database, which is changed a lot in the meantime. Now I have, 900 stones recorded, from which at least 400 are fluorescent. Some of theme you can see in the Gallery. Most photographs are made with a Nikon d70s and a "way too cool" UV-lamp (254-310-352 nm).

Carla and me in 2009