Back in Korea - and Messiaen's birds

Back in Korea and still feeling the effects of suddenly moving from mid-summer to mid-winter.

Trying to re-establish my life here, pick up whatever routines are helpful, and not get saddled with things I'd rather avoid. Just starting up life here after nearly 5 months away. Some things have changed (there's a new postulant with us) and some things haven't (the friary is still operating on the summer timetable for some reason).

From my reading:

A review in the Church Times by Peter McGeary (5 Sep 2008) of a book about listening makes the point:

This year is the centenary of the birth of the composer Olivier Messiaen, whose music is peppered with the tunes of countless birds. I am told that much of his birdsong music could not now be written, because the tunes are no longer sung: mainly because of the noise that human beings have created, the birds cannot hear one another; so they cannot learn their songs from one another. The variety of their song is being diminished, because they learn by listening, and if they cannot hear, they cannot learn.