It's still civilzed enough that a day hike is not a a major mountain climbing adventure - or comparably not the Alpine leg of the Tour de France.
This is Foothill's country where Spring leaves a few weeks later than due east 10 kilometers or so as the many crows fly. Likewise, the hillsides see dustings of snow and frost-bitten nights 3 or 4 weeks earlier than the City just over the lit-up night horizon.
Neel and son Luc manage their half section of the Foothills lying along the Millarville road just east of the the South Bow River Valley Park. It is intriguing countryside and not just to the oil and gas companies who have drilled up and down this valley making and losing fortunes in the process. Water and drainage here takes some peculiar turns and near cul de sacs.
Geese, duck and other waterfowl have plenty of spots, ponds and beaver-dam pools to choose from as do photographers looking for some of the valley's reflected beauty.
In the wintertime these are instant hockey rinks and places to play for the Berry boys - the three dogs and other collected menagerie of animals that manage to thrive on the farm. And included in the menagerie are not a few interlopers and occasional visitors from the City, the province and even from halfway across the country and world.
Neel's Place is a refreshment for artists, writers, musicians and folk who love good company in great surroundings. And of course its open year round.
But the real fun comes once each summer and fall. Summer brings a musical weekend, where Neel indulges her friends and colleagues in the Calgary Philharmonia and the musical community . Solos , quartets, classical opera and witty jazz tones waft their way across the countryside.
In the Fall, there is an art sale up at the Barn where people can see the paintings and pastels right in the native countryside that inspired them. As somebody from God's country said - its at Neel's Place, just this side of heaven.
