Tony Redhouse, Native American Flute Festival

What a fantastic celebration at the Native American Flute Festival in Oakhurst, Calif.. Tony Redhouse preformed music from one of his CD's, Journey to the Four Winds, ( yes, I bought that one )on Fri. night, and he was just one amongst a group of talented flute artists. The festivities were Fri, Sat & Sun in the Oakhurst Park.. with concerts on Fri and Sat. night at the high school auditorium. I will call them concerts, because of the variety of musical instruments demonstrated.. All the musicians played pieces that are on their CD's. I purchased more then I ever had, and was overwhelmed again with variety of flutes, and sounds.

A dear friend of mine was a vender again this year.. Nash makes a unique ceramic flute.. Next year I want to purchase one..actually there is a long wish list of flutes I would love to have..

There is a monthly flute circle at the Positive Living Center in the 3rd Thurs. evening. I have another commitment that evening,, or would love to attend. I hear about all the fun that they have..

I bought a CD called Comanche Peak by Tim Blueflint, and two by a beautiful young women named Rona Yellow Robe, she sang and played her multitude of flutes.. I love it when they tell the story about each flute and explain the differences.
"Voices of the Trees", and "Create your World" are the 2 that Rona brought.

Each artist has a table or stand next to them with an array of flutes, each flute made by different craftsman. They tell their history of how they came to this destination in life, what the flute means to them, a little about their family. Each has a special journey to share, maybe this is what I enjoy as much as the music, the total sharing.

This is an annual event, if you love the Native American Flute or would just like to learn about it, save the week-end in Sept. Next year it will be a Word Music event with many more types of instruments..
This is a wonderful opportunity for our younger citizens to be inspired by beautiful music in the mountains.

Coarsegold, New Lights- MALCO

This is the Intersection of 415 and 41 with the new directional signals. Well, not so new now. We moved to Coarsegold about 10 years ago and the County was talking about installing lights then. There were the political woes to over come, and the feeling that our country atmosphere would be in jeopardy. Not so.. In the last year it has improved the flow and made entrance onto the highway safer. A good thing after all the discussion.

Now let me side step that issue to talk about a group I had never heard about. MALCO. We had speakers Mr. Jim Weiss and Howard Cavil, at our P.E.O. Chapter meeting tell us all about their volunteer group. They assist and tutor English to non English speaking people that really want to learn to read our language.. They told some very interesting stories about the perseverance and how these people feel privileged to be in our country and have the opportunities that go with living here. The people that seek out the teachers at MALCO are determined to become better citizens and understand that they must be able to speak, read and write be understood and to have better paying jobs.. There are many Americans that have trouble reading and want to improve their skills also.

This is why I chose the photo that I took at the corner of highway 41 & 415.. If you wanted to go to Raymond and could not read the sign to turn right, where would you be? Seems easy for those of us, that don't have that problem. If you would like to help tutor, contact malcotutor@gmail.com . This is a free program for people of all ages in Eastern Madera County.