Welcome to Rural Montana! No, not small-town Montana or rustic Montana; I mean authentic Rural Montana.

Rural Montana, where there are no fast food restaurants, 24-hour convenience stores, or gigantic retail franchises. Where there are no skate parks, no amphitheaters, and certainly no collegiate or professional sports venues. Where you cannot even see the house of your nearest neighbors from your front porch. Where you often go days or weeks without seeing them at all.

Yes, I am talking about that Rural Montana. Austere, remote, serene and teeming with treasures.

We do not have the shopping diversity with which most Montanans are accustomed. If we need aspirin, milk or batteries later tonight, we better hope our neighbors are still awake to help out. But we are fortunate to have businesses that strive to provide all the items we need. You see, every store in Rural Montana is a convenience store. Do you need fresh pastries, lottery tickets or a new fridge? We have one store which provides all of that and more.

Are you looking for something unique not found on the shelf? Not to worry, many of our merchants can have it delivered within a day or two. Was your item of poor quality or did you simply change your mind and no longer want it? No problem, they take returns with no questions asked. Here in Rural Montana we may not have superstores or malls, but we are bursting at the seams with convenience.

We do not have entertainment districts or sports stadiums. In fact, many people believe there is no entertainment at all. But a friend recently noted that in urban areas people pay money to be entertained, while in Rural Montana we actually do the entertaining.

Would you like to take your wife on a date to a symphony orchestra? Great, join our prairie symphonette and make your own music. Are you interested in attending a sports event? Fantastic, come help at the invitational basketball tournament or bring your snowmobile and compete in the sled races. You can volunteer at our pioneer museum, join the Texas Hold’em League, or bring your family to participate in a rodeo or demolition derby. Oh, and the hunting and fishing? To die for! In Rural Montana we are overflowing with entertainment.

We do not have neighbors we can wave to from our back yard. But when you need them, they will help in any and every way possible. While you are away on vacation, your neighbor will feed your livestock, keep your furnace running, and check your mail.

What if you have surgery, lose a family member to illness, or have a fire in your attic? Friend, you better be ready because those neighbors will arrive in droves. They will bring meals, share a memory and a hug, and take care of your children. They are going to donate replacement furniture, fix your car, and even help pull 200 feet of water line to replace your pump. Around here everyone is your neighbor. Sure, we are sparsely populated, but we are jam-packed with neighbors.

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Angela Jamison is a native Montanan and she grew up in beautiful Bozeman. I'm the mother of two girls and write a blog about our life here and taking in the simple pleasures of family and food.

If any holiday gets the title of Hallmark Holiday, Valentine’s Day is it. There’s not much of a history to the origins of how it came about, the stores are filled with pink and red, cupids and hearts and little plastic nonsense. The kids have to buy cards, preferably along with candy hearts or chocolate kisses to give to everyone in their class…even the annoying boy who sits next to your daughter picking his nose all day. There are decorations at Target waiting to be bought that could rival their Christmas season ones. Roses and flowers will be over priced the week leading up, restaurants will be busy with couples celebrating and heart shaped boxes filled with sub-par chocolates will be in the front aisles of the grocery stores. Despite all of this I love Valentine’s Day.

Call me a sucker (I prefer hopeless romantic) but I think having a holiday that is meant only to celebrate love is wonderful. Mine haven’t always been great. My earliest Valentine’s memory is from first grade…I was wearing a new shirt with hearts all over it, my backpack was full of Valentine’s for my friends and I was so excited for the class celebration. The party ended before it started, however, as I threw up all over myself on the bus ride to school. In the office I had to trade my beautiful heart shirt for something the secretary could find in the lost and found. It was so sad, but I still look back on it fondly, remembering going through my bag of Valentine’s that my teacher sent home with me. Later on, while pregnant with my oldest, my husband and I got all dressed up to head downtown to our favorite restaurant for a fancy dinner. We walked in and were told our reservations were given away to a very important customer who decided to show up on Valentine’s day with a party of ten and no reservations. We were asked if we would mind waiting an hour or so. I’m sorry…you cannot ask a 7-month pregnant lady to wait for food, it’s just not happening (this restaurant has since closed its doors.) We took our dressed up selves to good old Columbo’s pizza and spent our Valentine’s dinner there. This actually became a tradition that we’ve down for several Valentine’s since. Through these and other ones that didn’t go quite as planned, I still have a soft spot for this day of love.

I don’t love all of it. I think the kids buying cards for their class can be silly. I don’t like how much the stores are trying to sell…no one needs a bunch of toy hearts, or stuffed animals or pens with a pink fluff ball on top. We work around all this. I have my kids make Valentine’s for their friends rather than get the pre-printed cards. We don’t buy gifts, but we do make heart shaped sugar cookies. My husband and I don’t exchange cards, but we do have a glass of champagne and maybe dig into the box of cheesy chocolates my mom always gets me. (She thinks totally opposite on these things and buys us all the silly things the stores sell for every holiday. You have no idea how many pairs of holiday themed socks I own!) It’s about taking a little extra time in our day to show someone how much you love them.

Whatever your experience is with Valentine’s day, the idea behind it is a positive one. Everything surrounding it is love and happiness. It’s hard to argue with that. And..if we didn’t have Valentines day in February it would just be another sad, cold winter month around here. So, we kinda have to love it…what else are you going to do? Spring is still so very far away.

Happy Valentine’s Day friends.

Jenna Caplette migrated from California to Montana in the early 1970s, first living on the Crow Indian reservation. A Healing Arts Practitioner, she owns Bozeman BodyTalk & Integrative Healthcare. She says, " Health is resiliency, a zest for the journey. It’s about coming awake to the joy of being alive. As a practitioner, its a privilege to facilitate that healing process, to help weave new patterns of health & well-being. “ And by the way, healthier, happier people help create a healthier, happier world.

When you think of black and white photography, you probably visualize old films and classic iconic prints from master photographers like Ansel Adams.

Kendall Roth of F-11 Photographic Supplies says, “I love black and white photography, love the contrast, love that it is raw. There is nothing to look past, like color, just the image in nothing but representation and gray scale. You can get lost in the imagery and the abstract is so much more abstract in a monochromatic tonal range. That raw feeling is exemplified on film, is a unique vintage style of getting back in tune with your photography on a physical level.”

You don’t have to shoot film to explore the art of black and white photography. Your digital camera can shoot in monochrome and this is the perfect time of year to try. It’s easier to see in black and white when the world around you is black and white, or mono-tone. Montana’s winter and early spring landscapes are rich in subtle tones and stark contrasts.

To begin with, choose a few color shots you think would lend themselves to black and white. Look for image editing software that offers tones of black and white — like monochrome, tonal and noir —and study how those filters change the color and texture in your images. Or, duplicate a color image, then edit one as black and white and compare it to the color version. Doing these little tasks help you begin to see in black and white.

To find good subjects for black and white photography, you need to develop the ability to look past the color of reality, and see contrast. For example, a green plant with red berries silhouetted against a blue sky has tonal values that are very similar even though the colors are different. The tones will be difficult to distinguish when that images is taken in, or changed to black and white.

Practice with your exposure. You want to find one that gives more detail in highlights, shadows, and mid-tones. Look at the texture and shape of your subject and how the light interacts with it. Lighting gives images dimension and differentiation; lighting brings life to your image.

Ansel Adams and other photographers pre-visualized what their images would look like before they ever pushed their camera’s shutter button. You want to be able to do the same. As you become more confident, try to make every decision in camera, rather than relying on editing software to make revisions. Just the same, even after you have developed the ability to “see in black and white,” when photographing in digital format, go ahead and shoot in color. When you edit a color image, you have more control over the editing process and you may decide that you prefer the image in color.

During your editing process, play around with the visual impact changes when you lighten or darken different parts of the image. Or, add a warming or cooling filter to give your image more feeling!

Black and white photography accentuates the quality of light and shadow., Its elegant simplicity evokes subtle moods difficult to express in color. It’s an invitation to express what you see in fresh ways. Doug Bundren, co-owner of F-11 Photographic Supplies says, “The best way to learn photography is to do it.” So get out there and give black and white photography it a try.