Yesterday I was walking and slipped and fell on some ice on the sidewalk. My elbows and hip are still bruised. After the fall, I started to pay more attention to where I was stepping to avoid additional injury.

Along the way, I noticed some fascinating and beautiful ice patterns on one section of pavement: shapes left by plants and leaves pushed flat against the pavement and then frozen. So I snapped a few photos with my phone camera. I might never have noticed them if I hadn’t been goaded by my fall into looking more closely.