One corner of the kitchen in our 1950s ranch is all windows. Ceiling to hip height three-foot wide windows that let in the incredibly strong California sun. When we first moved here a little over two years ago, I had no idea how strong that sun was, and I made simple short cafe curtain ruffles just to decorate the tops of the windows. I didn’t want to block the view of the back yard.

That summer I found out just how relentless the sun can be. The kitchen gets sunlight most of the day and can get unbearably hot with nothing filtering it. With my Multiple Sclerois, I couldn’t be in the kitchen more than a few minutes on warm days, as getting overheated can awaken new MS symptoms. Plus, we wanted to use the table in that corner to put bread and produce on, and the sun made that impossible. Condensation built up inside bread wrappers and mildewed the bread, and the produce literally cooked within a day in the sun.
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