Anneke Treep lives in Vledderveen, The Netherlands, with her husband, Roel. She used to live in Enschede, the town that made world news in 2000 when a fireworks factory blew up, knocking out a square kilometer of the city, demolishing hundreds of homes and killing many people. Anneke's home was damaged only slightly, being on the far edge of the blast zone. Some of her friends lost everything, miraculously escaping with their lives.

We had visited Anneke just the year before and admired the beautiful little town and its clean, peaceful neighborhoods. Now it had turned into a war zone that will take years to rebuild.

Anneke weathered the disaster with a courage born of her beautiful spirit. She is an artist and poet, apart from her math and computer background and her long association with the Dutch Cube Club, whose president she was for some years. The club was originally dedicated to in-depth explorations and mastery of Rubik's Cube, but has branched out to other puzzles and games in general.

Anneke visited us with her young son, Falco Freeling, shortly after they had taken a survival course with the Tracker School. When they locked themselves out of the house while we were gone, they "survived" by building a shelter in our backyard (see photo below).

Update 2020: Falco, all grown up, has become a chef in Groningen, The Netherlands. Anneke and Roel live close to nature, growing trees and gardening.

Nature's ways
Mathematics (but it turned out much has been complicated too much for my taste)
Mind and Spirit

Let's get a little more detailed:
Movies and books with only a few main characters, focusing on the evolution
of their relationships;
The Trackerschool and Wilderness Awareness School;
Cats
e^x
Puzzle concepts, tilings and complete sets
Looking for elegant solutions
Feel the earth, the sun, the rain, the wind

Even in desperation there is happiness: the beauty of feeling.