Suddenly, food is the perfect decoration.  Visits to our local farmer's market become intoxicating adventures, but we need strong arms to carry all the bounty of autumn home!  Once there, we're faced with the classic dilemma: should we eat it or save it to admire?  Most of us end up buying more than we can use just for the sheer pleasure of looking at it all season long--fortunately, most autumn fruits and squashes keep well.

Many of us have fond childhood memories of trips to the country in the fall.  Nothing tasted better than the crisp McIntosh or Golden Delicious you munched as you drove home, car packed with apples and pumpkins and fresh cider.  Making an autumn pilgrimage to beauty--opening your heart to the glory of the trees--can be a powerful experience, and roadside stands offer riches that taste especially sweet because of the extra effort you made to find them.

Mother Earth takes great joy in decorating the world in fall.  We can share some of her pleasure--and ally ourselves with her gracious abundance--when we choose autumn decorations and colours for our kitchens.  In early autumn, we surround ourselves with dusky burgundies and gold-tinged greens in honour of the orchard and wine harvests.  You may enjoy stenciling or painting plump harvest pears or apples here and there, or devising borders of grapes and vines.  Some of us can't resist displaying big bowls of artificial grapes (the real ones don't last long enough) in all their fruity rubies, plums, and purples: a good fake can be a joy forever.  Grapes are perfect little globes of autumn colour, beautiful in and of themselves.  But they also gently remind us that the hardships and pressures and bruisings of life help us to give our finest gifts: a cushioned grape gives no wine.

By midautumn, the trees amaze us with their brightness.  We can echo their passionate splendour on our walls, doors, or cupboards with splashes of garnet or burnt orange, russet or gold.  And here is a simple exercise that will deepen your appreciation of each leaf's beauty and complexity: choose a single perfect leaf from the many possibilities outdoors.  Then, using a pencil, trace around its outline directly onto a painted cabinet or wall.  Fill in your outline with the most vivid markers or paints you can find, doing your best to echo the leaf's vibrant colouration.  You'll find that copying something from nature is a wonderful way to relax a stressed or harried mind.  And the finished leaf (which may look surprisingly real) will be an autumn-long reminder of the trees.

There are many other ways to celebrate the trees in your kitchen.  You could string some autumn-leaf lights above your sink, or hang a few preserved leaves over the table.  (Try microwaving leaves between paper towels for a minute on each side to keep their colour fresh.)  The leaf-copying exercise above may inspire you to paint swirls of leaves on the walls.  Some of us have been known to scatter and armful of real ones on the floor to soften the harsh corners!

It can be very satisfying to make or find special kitchen decorations as the weather changes.  Something as playful and inexpensive as a scarlet and orange maple leaf potholder or a set of apple napkin rings can add an autumn note of brightness to the room and to our meals.  Autumn is the time for special family feasts; serving platters, plates, and bowls in autumn leaf or harvest fruit and vegetable shapes will become your celebratory feast companions year after year.

The squash harvest inspires us in the kitchen with shades of bittersweet, creamy pumpkin, and muted greens flushed with orange.  Your power place may need an autumn cushion or throw in these delicious colours, or you could pain a harvest still-life on a cabinet, or frame a luscious autumn botanical print and display it on the wall. 

In late autumn, the pumpkins and midnight-black of the Halloween season wind a cloak of mystery around the room.  By the end of October, the leaves outdoors are mostly brown and scattered.  You could echo this new somberness of nature's colour scheme with umber, chocolate, and sienna along with the traditional orange and black.  Earthy colours remind us of the fertile power of Earth; even when she sleeps, fallen leaves become food for the soil.

When Samhain (the ancient name for Halloween) arrives on October 31, your kitchen altar may become an ancestor shrine, with mementos of dead loved ones, along with a traditional jack-o'-lantern, to honour this special day.