Bloomin' Lovely

This tree in our garden has really beautiful leaves. It is usually the last bare tree to be seen, but it looks as though it will be bursting forth over the next few days.
I went a walk along the river bank this afternoon, as there are some new ducklings along there, but they were staying hidden.
I've also uploaded another photo (in panoramic, so best viewed large) of a field of oil seed rape that we passed on our walk. Warwickshire doesn't have stunning majestic scenery, but it certainly brushes up well. 
We spoke to our family on Skype today, and during the conversation our son sent me a link of a YouTube video of himself being interviewed on Taiwan television this week. It's very strange to see your son on video and not understand what he's saying (he was speaking in Chinese Mandarin). Actually I did catch the odd word here and there such as "Yingguo ren" which means "English". I should have persevered with my Mandarin lessons - I did a few terms - but there was a lack of interest in the class, and they haven't run it for the last couple of years.