Mänd is much better than Lepp..

...I've discovered that mänd (pine wood), even if it's been lying around a bit in the snow and gotten wet, is superior to white alder. It burns for much longer (you only need to turn your back on the alder and it does a Hiroshima there and then in your grate) thus giving more heat, or better value heat for money, or something like that.
It does generate Pompeiian amounts of ash though (one day I'll stop using spurious metaphors but not today) which together with having to trim the dry bits off as kindling to get the fire going (you can stack the wet stuff around the sides, it dries out like, erm...Gerard Depardieu's farm in "Jeanne de Florette") makes for more work (boo!).
Watch out for more dubious tips later on this winter...