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Winery review: Carboy

/ Kristiane Weeks-Rogers / Leave a comment

Visit the Carboy website


Ambiance: Farmhouse winery. This unassuming spot and warehouse are surrounded by vineyards and gorgeous mountains. There’s a space inside for tastings, but the backyard has a stage for fine live music, and the upstairs space is a slice of winery valley heaven.


Tasting: ($15 tasting for 5 wines)
Tasting style: 5 wines, 1 glass at a time, encouraged to be at the bar inside.

1. Sauv blanc, fruity scent, like apple juice. 
2. Blan.co, close to Chardonnay, acidic light, sour 
3. Rosé, fruity and bright, minerally.
4. Syrah, smells like wet cherries. winter spices, warm. Fruit forward. 
5. Malbec, dry and tannic. 
What I brought home: Reserve Sauv. Blanc

Summary: Carboy’s wines range in all kinds of styles. Most of the grapes are grown here in Palisade, and being surrounded by what you’re drinking is really special.

Dog friendly: Yes, on the yard (no dogs on the upstairs balcony – so visit twice!)

Food availability: Yes. Carboy offers a variety of boards, panini, bagged snacks, and pop cans for the whole family to enjoy a picnic on the lawn. 

Winery review: Restoration winery

/ Kristiane Weeks-Rogers / Leave a comment
Visit the Restoration winery website

Ambiance: Industrial farmhouse. The winery sits nestled surrounded by vines and peach trees growing on the hill above downtown with undisturbed views of the Grand Mesa and Mt. Garfield and the bookcliffs. Inside, the building is like a big open warehouse. Outside is a huge covered patio and a huge grassy yard to enjoy all the views.

Tasting (by my rank):
1. Sparkling rosé, Dry and like a tart apple cider on the nose.
2. Barbera, Dry oaky. Low tannins which I prefer.
3. Merlot, Smooth and buttery. Jammy on the nose.
4. Alboriño, Crisp and dry, not too sweet. Great on a hot day.
What I brought home: the sparkling rosé

Summary: Restoration’s wines are dry and tart. There were 4 wines included in the tasting, all of which I enjoyed! All of the grapes are grown right on Restoration’s property, so if you want an ultra-local glass of wine, come to Restoration.

Tasting style: 1 glass, 4 wines.

For the flight tasting, I was given one glass and one wine at a time. In order to get the next wine to taste, I waited for the server to walk out to the spot I was sitting outside, which was really appreciated.

Dog friendly: Very dog friendly, huge grass area with poop bags and trash can.

Food availability: No. Sometimes has food trucks, check their website for schedule. Bring your own snacks!

Dia de los Muertos

/ Kristiane Weeks-Rogers / Leave a comment

“This year, gente, let’s be Monolithic all over the place!
Get Academic with your DDLM. Study how sustaining native traditions strengthens internal colonies. Investigate substantial rhetorical potency in DDLM’s cultural affirmations. Compare Mexica to Chicanarte semiotics of the craneo. Look at ways rituals like DDLM, or toy babies in cakes, perform acts of Identification. Get a term paper out of DDLM, or extra credit by attending an event.

Get Aesthetic. Paint your face like a calavera. Buy a book of Posada’s calaveras, learn to recognize the real thing and become conversant with the caricatures. Write a Calavera poem. Be a participant in local DDLM pageants. Be a customer at a gallery. Hang a piece of original arte on your wall. (It could be a hummingbird or a butterfly.)


Get Social: Go out dressed-up since you’ve painted your face. And spend lots of money at arts&crafts sales because there’s no economy like the local economy. Tell your friends all about Posada and they’ll pick up the tab.


Get Diverse: Find an open-minded not-Chicanx and explain DDLM to them. Tell a monolingual why this is funny, be sensitive pendejo: “No hay trikotri. No kendy. Ya no chinguen.” Put leprechaun hats on your Catrina and Alebrijes in March.


Get Creative: Artists, whip out some calaveras, build inventory for next year’s last-minute opportunities. Plaza’s locked up now but there will be other Jimmy’s. Órale, I haven’t seen a Santa and Rudolf calavera yet. Decorate the fireplace mantle with more than pumpkins. Buy a Catrina or start a collection of Alebrijes, be the envy of all your non-ethnic amigxs. Rockefeller Center this year has some giant Alebrijes in the plaza. Buy a book on Alebrijes.


Get Cultural: Tell your friends about cucui, espantos, why raza say qepd, and, !Presente! Build an altar, be private or public. Honor your ancestors.


Burn sage; the ancestors are in the smoke. Remember who you are.”

from La Bloga

Guest Blog Post (on Trish Hopkinson A Selfish Poet)

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My Masters Degrees Didn’t Prepare Me for Publishing – guest blog post by Kristiane Weeks-Rogers

Thank you, Trish for having my guest post, My Masters Degrees Didn’t Prepare Me for Publishing – guest blog post by Kristiane Weeks-Rogers.

My MA and MFA programs taught me a lot about reading and writing and slim to nothing about the process of publishing. What about you?

I know pandemic times suck, but…

/ Kristiane Weeks-Rogers / Leave a comment

But the possibilities to learn and engage in a digital space have become more available than ever. And not even cost anything.

zoom life may not be the best thing for working hard, maybe. But web calls and seeing faces and hearing voices while being apart is a joyful space when it comes to play.

my joy appears when I join an internet community full of writers and artists. Each lecture, live Facebook event, reading, and meeting has been more than welcome. Keep keeping on artists. Even we’re not physically together, we are together through the openness of our arts!