Catching breath after the election campaign
The Downing Street garden was an oasis of calm after the tumultuous last days of this campaign. Order was restored, albeit a rather gooey, strange new order. The birds were singing, and the storm clouds hadn't yet rolled back.
While the two nice young men above were cracking jokes I found myself reflecting on some of the stranger things we came across during this campaign.
We always expected UKIP's Nigel Farage would inject some colour into the campaign, but black and blue was not exactly what we bargained for.
The contest with John Bercow in Buckingham had not grabbed viewers' interest. The Prime Ministerial debates became a distraction from local campaigning. But when Farage's plane turned out to have two right wings this blog instantly doubled its readership.
The best election quote surely came from the ambulanceman who announced with a straight face that "Mr Farage was unconscious but still talking".
The local radio debates worked well too. Radio Solent's "Megaphone Tour" managed a constituency a day throughout the campaign, really getting under the skin of some great local talking points: the sort of gritty things listeners didn't realise they cared about until they found themselves arguing back at the radio.
The regional TV debate proved a real hit with our audience as we took over The Hexagon in Reading, the place where they hold the snooker, and our viewers whooped and cheered as Greens potted reds and blues colllided with yellows, all captured on a six camera OB that really showcased the in-house talents of BBC South's excellent technical and creative team.
Who said politicians weren't honest? One sent me a long email on the horrors of the campaign trail, telling a journalist in writing that "I'll be glad when I lose". Another candidate replied to a question about whether he'd sign up to a pledge of honest campaiging with "I don't think I should, given what I'm up to".
Who will forget that bitter spat between Conservative defence spokesman Julian Lewis and his Lib Dem rival Colonel Terry Scriven in the New Forest, revolving around the military man's attempt to pull rank by using photos of himself in ceremonial uniform?
Or our former BBC colleague Richard Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax who survived attempts by the Liberal Democrats to brand him too posh and then found his criticisms of the Yellow peril getting headlines on his day two in Westminster.
How quickly those bruises are forgotten may determine how well the coalition survives. And of course we're all looking forward to Nigel Farage getting his breath back when his broken ribs heal.
Welcome to the hustings! I'm Peter Henley, the BBC's political reporter in the south of England. From parish councils in Sussex, to European politics in Oxford, this is the blog for you. 
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