I’m sitting in my girlfriend’s backyard and a police aircraft is flying overhead; a constant buzzing that I can’t quite tune out amidst the queer playlist we’re listening to.

I’m having a picnic with my partner in the park down the block from where we live; we hear the laughter of kids from the nearby pool; and the fourth police cruiser drives by in under an hour.

I’m watching the sunset on my butch’s front stoop and we hear someone in distress down the street; they are being questioned by the police; the police have guns; we have water and a snack, and try to deescalate the situation. 

I’m leaning against a cruiser in the basement garage of the Regina Police Station with my comrade; we are waiting to be processed after being arrested at a protest demanding Canada end its complicity in arming a genocidal Israel; we hear three police officers bragging about their new tasers and holsters; they are discussing their favourite ways to draw a weapon.

—

Living in Regina’s downtown core, certain truths about the city are made abundantly visible. We are living amidst crises of artificial scarcity: a lack of access to housing, food, and safe drug supply are worsened by the ongoing climate catastrophe pushing temperatures into the extremes. Municipally, provincially, and federally, we have the resources to address these issues, but rather than fund initiatives to support those affected, we continue to prioritize a ballooning police budget at the expense of new and existing resources.

Creeping bellflower is a prolific and invasive species that thrives in our city and neighbourhood; it has deep taproots, is rhizomatic, a prolific seed producer, and chokes out nearly everything around it. Creeping Bellflower is often found in the empty and burned out lots that slumlords and city management ignore, and that city cops are all too happy to surveil and police the usage of.

There are those who cultivate the plant, call it beautiful. Others will pull up the stalks in an effort to control the visible spread of the plant; but it always returns. Few do the hard and dirty work needed to abolish this plant, to dig down deep and address the root cause of the issue; to work with their neighbours and community to address the systematic nature of this invasive plant.

My mom tried to rid her yard of the flower; she dug down three feet to get at the roots; laid down a layer of cardboard to prevent new growth; planted beautiful flowers in the now liberated space. Her garden is thriving, yet the Creeping Bellflower returns. Her neighbours can’t be bothered addressing this blight, and even the power of a suburban fence cannot protect us from its spread.

I think of my mom’s garden; of the diverse flowers and food now thriving in the relative absence of Creeping Bellflower; of the beautiful possibilities that live in the fertile dirt; if only we collectively cared enough to address this issue.

The work to uproot the plant results in a bounty. Not only are we left with an abundance of land, liberated from the chokehold of the plant, in which a diversity of food and medicine can now grow, but all parts of the uprooted plants are edible. 

And not only are they edible, but they are high in polyphenols and ascorbic acid, which along with the plant’s invasive and prolific nature, make it an ideal base for a local eco-developer.

—

Creepenol Developer (Makes 4L)

Recipe based on Phillip Hoffman’s Eco Developing Process for Kodak 3378* Filmstock.

Ingredients:

• 320g Creeping Bellflower (flowers, leaves)
• 4L Boiling Water
• 360 Washing Soda
• 80g Vitamin C

Preparation:

• Mash the flowers and leaves, then pour boiling water over them.
• Steep the mixture in the sun for 1+ hours.
• Cool to 30C.
• Add the washing soda, and mix well until bubbles stop. 
• Add the Vitamin C, and mix well.
• Use immediately.

Develop Kodak 3378E under red light for about 2 Minutes @ 30 degrees Celsius.