Songs for new seedlings

Our volunteer James travelled with Forests Without Frontiers (FWF) founder Nicoleta to meet a local elder and plan a new musical venture.

We arrived in the hillside village of Nucșoara, a delightful community with ornate wooden houses sitting below the snow-capped Făgăraș Mountains, a proposed protected area. Plum and apple tree blossom decorate small orchards across a verdant backdrop of mountainside forest.

Nico, Silvia and the local priest in the village church

The local priest and Mayor enthusiastically greet Nicoleta Carpineanu, Founder of Forests Without Frontiers. They reunite Nico with Silvia Dan at the village church; a local elder she first met two years ago and whom benefitted from food boxes FWF fundraised for during the pandemic. Silvia’s renowned singing captivated Nico on her previous visit and she’s returned hoping to work with her on a special project. There is a visible connection between them, one of authentic sensitivity and unspoken understanding. It’s difficult not to be absorbed by Silvia’s gentle spirit. She invites Nico to her home, where she has lived since childhood, to sit together on a blanket in front of her porch. Nico sips homemade dandelion tea, made with water from her well, whilst Silvia’s nimble fingers playfully thread flower stems to make dandelion crowns. It feels like a magical world set within a natural amphitheatre of rustling tree canopies, birdsong, and a trickling stream nearby.

A Natural Connection

Nico and Silvia share thoughts under the soft spring sunlight. Silvia says we can all find happiness by observing nature’s simplicity all around us, pointing enthusiastically towards the small mosaic of flowers by her side. As well as nature’s beauty, Silvia is thankful for her strong connection to faith. She hopes future generations will live with a sense of faith, encouraging the young to read ample books “to become culturally educated, to have stimulating conversations, to remain calm in challenging situations, and to live with good intentions.” She continues, expressing her concern that children’s continual digital connection will make their minds old and tired.

Silvia smiles as she says her connection with Nico is the best fortune that life has gifted her, believing the instinctive need to reach out to each other was no accident. Together with Nico, Silvia wishes to preserve traditional songs and stories hoping others can benefit from the knowledge she gained from literature, and from her most valued teacher and role model, her mother.

Silvia and Nico catching up in Silvia’s garden

Nico with Silvia Dan when they first met

Elders’ Tales

Silvia gracefully sings for Nico a song about a willow tree, to which the surrounding birds seem to accompany in symphony. Silvia invites Nico to join her for another song. It is a powerful moment of love and friendship communicated through melody, the harmonising voices uniting two generations. Nico’s afternoon with Silvia is a poignant reminder to protect elders from social isolation and to value their life learned lessons. Silvia is a protector and messenger of forgotten tales that reconnect us to the land and elements we are custodians of today.

In preparation for her next Forests Without Frontiers EP Nico hopes to return to Romania this summer to record songs with Silvia, sharing each other’s creative energy once more, and to preserve her wisdom for future generations.

If you’d like to discover more about how the Forests Without Frontiers project began, with songs of the elders from the Carpathian Mountains, you can watch the video about the recording of Nico’s Be One album.

James