Bible study this morning. It rained a good bit of the morning, but was quite comfortably warm. Dick and I went out for breakfast to the Shoppes on Mill Street. That was a pleasant way to start a week. Tomorrow and the next day are at home days. So far no out of home obligations.

On the way home yesterday, one of the little bridge protectors fell off of my glasses. I stopped in at Advanced Eye Care and they fixed it right up. Sure like that eye doctor.

Bible study was very interesting. The second reading and third readings referred to the Good Shepherd. One verse is " My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me." I remembered learning at a study that the shepherds in Israel took their sheep to a "community" pasture where the sheep grazed together all day, then at the end of the day the shepherds would call and their sheep would come to them. Indeed they do know the voice of their shepherd. Peggy Feider, one of our group, affirmed this. She was a "shepherdess" for 20 years. For 20 years they had sheep, as many as 60 at one time. She said that they did know her voice and the voices of her children. If the children showed the lambs or sheep at the fair, when they spoke the animals came but ONLY their animals, not the others owned BY others.

A bit more about the conference. On Saturday morning, we all met for a "kind of " Irish breakfast. At least we had eggs, mushrooms, tomato, Irish sausages (including black and white pudding) and scones and brown bread. We also had this special breakfast on Sunday. After that Mary Schultze, our president, gave a presentation on Fr. Mazzuchelli, an a Italian priest who was a missionary/priest from Green Bay to Galena. He established many parishes and a Dominican Nunnery. He has been made Venerable and there is a drive to see that he is made a saint in the future. During the afternoon, we toured two churches that he built. When I get my pictures onto the computer, I will post a couple. One is no longer being used, is very old and being restored by the KC's of the area. The other has his grave site.

We also had a presentation by a Tracey Roberts, who gave the history of Galena focusing on women and the Irish and Celtic settlers. She also sang several ethnic songs, all a Capella and also a couple in Gaelic.

A trip to Mineral Point for a lunch of pasties and figgy hobbin, a tour of the Green Lanturn (A gallery that is featuring the art of Cindy Matyi, Patrick Gallagher (dear friends) and Steve O'Laughlin and Kelly Kirin took up the part of the afternoon not dedicated to Fr. Mazzuchelli.

After dinner in downtown Galena, we retired to the pub at the Irish Cottage for the music, some camaraderie and a Tarot reading. It was my first and I was not too impressed, I could have told myself and have everything that she did and did not feel that she had too much insight into me now, though Kate felt that she really read her.

Betty did a great job arranging the weekend. I hope to go again some time. Maureen would like to have us go as a group to Ireland sometime. Sounds like a great idea to me.

Hope you had as nice a Monday as I did.

Love

Mary