Relax and have a cuppa

We imagined walking into a building site where workers were stripping walls, dust everywhere, but then emerged on the other side into a garden full of Mediterranean plants, lavender, rosemary, mint and chive, as well as bay and olive trees. To taste, we enjoyed an entertaining mixture of Indian chicken jalfrezi (a spicy dish with tomato sauce, garam masala and chunky onions and peppers) and grilled teriyaki chicken skewers. Following reduction we cooked, using all these herbs, a lamb cutlet with roasted vegetables. On the palate we figuratively heard the crackle of the gunpowder tea leaves when brewed as we sat back and relaxed with a cuppa.