Gather ye rosebuds while ye may

Or, in my case, ye kindling. I took the wheelbarrow over to our neighbor's property yesterday and picked up two loads of downed birch branches to use as kindling. He's told me in the past to feel free to gather them up whenever I want to. It saves him the trouble of clearing them out before he cuts the grass for the first time in the spring.

Grape vines are planted on the slopes to take advantage of good drainage.

So I have a bit more kindling for the daily fires. I'll still need to gather up some more before too long so I can keep a rotation of dry branches handy. I only need to do this because I burned through all the kindling I had set aside during the summer. Happens every year around this time.