Life's terrain...

More about Life's terrain...

Don't take it seriously...

Who is that woman facing me?
Without my glasses I can't see.
Her face looks like a topo map
of rounded hills and cranny gaps.
The longitude seems vaguely right,
but latitude has suffered blight.

I wanted to play around with the idea of a topo mapped face. Ever since this result popped up, I've been thinking of names for the various features on the map according to experience. Things like 'falling laughter ravine system' for all those ageing laugh lines, 'ridges of reflection' and 'peak of persistence' on the forehead, and 'cliffs of concentration' right there between the eyebrows... and of course there will inevitably be a 'desolation valley' or a 'saddle of sorrow' on a face that has seen 73 years...

Here is a bit of the natural nomenclature of a topo map:
Cliffs: Steep slopes with closely spaced contour lines
Plateaus: Flat areas with very far apart contour lines
Hills: Contour lines that form concentric curves
Ridges: Contour lines parallel to each other, on each side of the ridge
Depressions: Indented holes in the Earth's surface, such as sinkholes and volcanic calderas
Valleys: Show “V” shape contours, with the “V”s pointing upstream
Saddle: The lowest point between two high points on a ridge and connects two peaks or hills
Spur: A sloping ridge that runs down to a lower elevation, typically to a creek or river
Peak: Also known as the summit or crest, is the highest point of the mountain or hill

If you are unfamiliar with topo maps, here's a link at Muir Way about how to read them:

https://muir-way.com/blogs/articles/how-to-read-topographic-maps?srsltid=AfmBOopFiFDcstqw--KUGxncc1EveYatyvKYtfRXPNi6aejE-Srx4KfB