RUTH TOMLINSON grew up in northern Lancashire on England's North West coast, a stone's throw from the beach and in close proximity to the natural wilds of the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. From a young age she was nurtured to cultivate a sense of observing her surroundings with a childlike wonder, absorbing the unexpected details and small oddities, and discovering the tiny intricacies - a habit that she practices to this day.