From my early childhood I am a nature lover, and stroll around in the woods and the fields.

From 1992 till 2000 I was a member of the Jeugdbond voor Natuur en Milieustudie (JNM, A club for nature minded young people(age from 12 till 25) organised and runned by young people. Excursions in the nature and have summer camps)

Fom 1994 tot 1999 I have studied in Hoorn on the Agriculture and Horticultural school.

In 1999 tot 2004 I followed a study on the International College Larenstein, Velp, Holland. During those studies I have been a trainee in Ireland(2000) and Ivory Coast (West-Africa, 2002). In 2003 I did research and write my thesis in South- Africa.

In 2004 I have been graduated as A Bachelor of Science in Tropical Forestry.

Photography is a hobby of mine for a very long time. First on a analogous camera, later on a digital.

In 2005 I have been travelling to England with two other tree minded people. We search for the ancient, huge and old trees that we find in books about the trees in England(Thomas Packenham). We found several beautiful trees. During the travel I had a good "click" with one of the travel companions. He is now my Soulmate/parner.

At least once a year we travel to England to search for more ancient old trees we found in books. Most of the time we found trees on our route that I did not found in any of my books.

Those trees are such of a beauty and of age that you wonder if the time stood still. I admire them and have unconditional respect and love for them.

Especially ancient old trees and very impressive girth ones

The trees on this website and the stories of them are a result of my travelling and my passion and fascination for this secret old trees.

Huge, big, ancient old trees of at least 1000 or 2000 years old are my passion. I am very fascinated by them. I admire them and have a big respect and love for them. On this website you can find all of my passion about this.

And Now After 13 years I finaly work with trees. As a treeinspector at the company BSN, De Boominspecteurs. I am so happy...

From the websiote of the company I work for:

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Category - From trainee to tree inspector

21 february 2018 Knowledge and training, News, About Bomenwacht

Written by Sabine Roelofs

They received the necessary theoretical knowledge from Reindert van Braak for their choice, the trainees who participated in our learning program Kweekvijver. Afterwards they were allowed to put them into practice in real projects under the guidance of Erik Koppelaar. At the end of January, 4th trainees received the certificate Breeding Pond Training. They may now call themselves a tree consultant. The next time we follow Eric van Empelen and Hanneke de Bruijn in their work as tree inspector.

"I have enjoyed working in home care for 13 years", says Hanneke de Bruijn. "But even my clients encouraged me to do something with my passion for trees. I have that passion, thanks to my training college in Tropical Forestry, I have the knowledge, I had to do something with it now! "Our learning path Kweekvijver trains enthusiastic tree enthusiasts to become tree inspectors. Hanneke has gone through the process with a great shine!

Hanneke de Bruijn, Breeding pond (Name of learning program),

Big old trees

In 2004 she graduated at Van Hall Larenstein College in the direction of Tropical Forestry, part of the College Forest and Nature Management course. The crisis affected her, as did many others, and she rolled into home care. She could not express her passion for trees in her work, in her free time the trees were number 1. In the Netherlands the arboretum Trompenburg in Rotterdam is a favorite place. But also her holidays were - and are - in the sign of old monumental trees. "I go to England once or twice a year, looking for big, old trees. And especially the trees that I have read about, that I have seen on photos or that I saw passing by on television. This is how I read Thomas Pakenham's book Meeting with Remarkable Trees. Those photos, really fantastic! I just thought: 'Wow, I really want to see those trees!' And if you really stand next to such a tree in England, that feeling! I really feel a connection, I feel antiquity, nature. Super!"

The jitters to really make her passion her work, they remained. After 13 years of home care, the time was there. She searched, inquired and eventually found, via via, our learning program Kweekvijver. She applied, started the process and received a certificate a month ago. As a tree inspector she is now busy with her passion every day. "I now inspect about 300 trees in a day. If you told me this 5 months ago, I would have fallen off my seat! "

Theory, self-study, practice

Of course, an intensive process was preceded. "The theory lessons of Reindert (van Braak), self-study in the books and going out in the field/street to put the theory into practice: as far as I am concerned it is a golden combination! If, for example, Reindert had taught us about lateral grain failure in theory and that did not land well enough, we would go outside, looking for a tree with that kind of failure where Reindert would explain it again on the spot. Just as long as we realized, this is it. "Despite her studies and her passion, Hanneke thought it was quite exciting to start. "Do I really know anything about it? Can I do it? ` The result was not bad. I knew a lot, in the back of my mind. Although of course I have never been taught in this, and never finished learning"

It is a matter of making flying hours. And that will be fine in the coming period: Hanneke is now working full-time at De Boominspecteurs.

http://www.mypassionfortrees.nl/

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