Leigh Forbes
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writeleighso.bsky.social
Leigh Forbes
@writeleighso.bsky.social
2K followers 610 following 4K posts
Friendly book designer at blot.co.uk
Free advice for anyone stuck with formatting – DMs open.

Also: typography, writing, books, cats, environment, birds, bees, butterflies, running, mountains, France

Neurodivergent, she/her
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Leigh Forbes
loreandordure.com
Serious border ornamentation points!
drfrancisyoung.bsky.social Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · Sep 28
As I delve deeper into the music of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, today's composer is Mikołaj Zieleński (fl. 1611)
September 28, 2025 at 7:58 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
Orange square in which is written, on the left (in white rounded sans-serif writing), “I’m on a 2000 day learning streak!” Under that, in the same typeface, but lighter orange, it says “Duolingo”. On the right is the yellow, orange, and white Duolingo cartoon owl, with its wings spread in celebration.
September 7, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Leigh Forbes
accounts-leaving-x.bsky.social
Autscape Organisation (a UK-based nonprofit charity that hosts the annual Autscape conference, an autism-centred gathering run for and by autistic people since 2005) has left X (1.731 followers)

Bluesky: @autscape.org
June 21, 2025 at 9:34 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
Last week, my local indie-bookshop was devastated by fire (info in alt-text).

They’re hoping to reopen in temporary (much smaller) premises nearby, but to help tide them over, please consider buying a book from their page at uk.bookshop.org/shop/onetree.... Thank you!

@bigbeardedbookseller.com
The image shows an angled view of a row of four shops (stretching from the left of the image and away to the right), taken from across the road. The three storey terrace is built of stone, with a white-painted gable end (left). Flames, which started in the property next door, have spread to the roof of One Tree Books (the left-most frontage just before centre), and can clearly be seen against the cloudy/blue sky above. In the end, the whole block (at least six businesses and a number of residential flats) were gutted.
July 19, 2025 at 4:15 PM
writeleighso.bsky.social
My view right now 😎
Looking out over northern Switzerland. Green mountains and scattered cumulus clouds (seen from above, n the left, and the ragged, snow-splattered slope of the Mõnch to the right. Deep blue sky above, fading to pale blue of the horizon.
July 10, 2025 at 10:02 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
My view right now 🤩
The view from Männlichen, looking down to Grindelwald. Snow-capped mountains from centre to right (cloud also on the far right and left) with a lush green (grass and trees) wide valley in the middle dotted with chalets.
July 9, 2025 at 10:29 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
My view right now 😊
A view from above of a deep Swiss valley, surrounded by snow-and-cloud capped mountains.
July 8, 2025 at 1:10 PM
writeleighso.bsky.social
Narrating audiobooks can be "tricky" sometimes, but my sound booth has nice soft foamy walls, and banging my head against them has no effect on frustration levels. So instead, I might have got into the habit of head-butting the mic... 👀
#AudioBooks #Recording
Screenshot of a recording software interface, showing a 1h 30m soundwave (which, at this resolution, looks like a long horizontal bar of very tightly packed vertical lines – like thousands of very skinny people standing in a long tine – pale green against a dark green background). In half a dozen places, the lines spike sharply up and down (like super tall people with long legs sticking out at the bottom too), showing where a sudden loud noise has occurred.
June 25, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Reposted by Leigh Forbes
matteristbooks.bsky.social
Go Outside and Touch Grass: 7 Inspiring Books About Nature and the Environment bookriot.com/nonfiction-b...
7 Inspiring Books About Nature and the Environment
Nature is good for you. Get the data, fire up your sense of wonder, and find inspiration to fuel your climate activism.
bookriot.com
June 23, 2025 at 11:01 PM
writeleighso.bsky.social
Omicron = O micron = little o
Omega = O mega = big o
i.e. short o and long o
😍

(Apologies to any Greeks for my excitement;I have only just worked this out!)

#linguistics #language #typography
June 24, 2025 at 3:02 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
I’ve often wondered why Portuguese, a Romance language, sounds so Slavic – rather than more like Spanish or Italian. Here’s the answer!

portuguesepedia.com/why-portugue...

#linguistics #languages
Why Does Portuguese Sound Like Russian?
Why does Portuguese sound like Russian? The answer lies in phonetics—both languages share stress-timing and similar vowel reduction.
portuguesepedia.com
June 22, 2025 at 11:30 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
Massive storms in France just now 😳
The background is a map of the Pays de là Loire (mid western France), on which is superimposed a mass of dots (representing lightning strikes). Red dots are the oldest, through orange and yellow, to white, which show the currently active zone, which stretches approximately 80 miles from Rennes to the north east. There is also a smaller (but still huge) storm over the southern coast of Brittany).
June 13, 2025 at 3:15 PM
writeleighso.bsky.social
PSA: don’t do this!
This guy is taking *multiple* calls on speakerphone. And because the (nice) music in here is loudish, he has the volume turned up. So basically he’s shouting at his table, and his table is shouting back.
The location is the interior of a quirky cafe. High ceilings, large globe lamps hanging from the ceiling, the walls crammed with framed paintings (over strongly patterned wallpaper). Left of centre, at the far end of the room from where I’m sitting, is a man at a table. He is marked with a large yellow arrow!
June 3, 2025 at 9:05 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
When you spot a hornet creeping into a crevice right by your front door.. 😍😳😍😳😍😳😍😳
The background is a Virginia creeper growing on a brick wall (the side of my garage).Top centre, on a leaf in the shadow, is a (European) hornet. Moments later it slunk into a hole the eaves, top left.
May 23, 2025 at 9:20 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
Off to the big smoke today, to an art exhibition. Can’t remember the last time I went to London, but the price of a train ticket has doubled 😳
Also, people…
May 16, 2025 at 10:11 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
Last Thursday evening, as I was heading into Reading in slow-moving traffic with my windows down, I heard… a *nightingale* 😲
#BirdingUK
May 3, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Reposted by Leigh Forbes
radiolento.bsky.social
Happy 1st May! Truly the best month of the year to be outside.

#MayDay
path through the trees between tall cow parsley with their delicate white flowers. the tall trees are in full leaf, very bright green. in sunshine. no one around.
May 1, 2025 at 7:46 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
My view right now
A very close-up shot of my cat’s ginger (left side) and black (right side) face. All you can see is her mouth, nose, and one eye. Oh, and a few whiskers going out of shot on the left.
April 25, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Reposted by Leigh Forbes
tomgauld.bsky.social
Happy Easter!
(From me and @newscientist.com)
A professor rabbit berates his bunny students “Come on, guys! Easter is just around the corner! You need to know this stuff!” He is pointing at a formula: X equals (2C multiplied by the square root of Y, over S) multiplied by (A plus D) X = number of eggs required C = number of children partaking in egg hunt Y = average age A = area of garden S = size of eggs D = depth of undergrowth
April 20, 2025 at 8:56 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
Happy Easter everyone. Late (chocolate) breakfast for me after TWELVE HOURS sleep 🥳
A close-up of the silver foil that my Easter egg came in. It’s quite rumpled, hence lots of random light and dark areas. In the middle are a few last crumbs of chocolate (the egg is no more).
April 20, 2025 at 10:08 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
After 8h birding at the RSPB this morning, I skipped the nap and spent the afternoon helping with lambing instead. What a great day!
Me facing the camera, wearing a grey hoodie and black leggings, sitting in a barn surrounded by pallet-pens and straw. There’s a small white milk-drunk lamb on my lap, and I’m wearing a “well, what-can-you-do” expression. The background is a pen with straw on the floor (centre left) and a blue water bucket (top right). At the top left and centre, there are two very small white lambs facing right, sniffing at my boots (I’m sitting on the floor with my legs stretched out in front of me). On the right, all you can see is the right ear and eye of a very small, and very close black lamb sniffing my phone as I take the picture
April 19, 2025 at 9:58 PM
writeleighso.bsky.social
So many birds seen and/or heard this morning; the highlights were: avocet, snipe, whitethroat, and nightingale, but also many of my favourites including: treecreeper, blackcap, teal, sedge warbler, lapwing, song thrush, and green woodpecker.
A brilliant start to my day!
#UKBirding
April 19, 2025 at 6:43 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
Nightingales! 😍

#UKBirding
April 19, 2025 at 3:27 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
Eeeek 😳

#UKBirding
Image shows a screenshot of my phone’s list of alarms, starting with 07:45 on Tuesday, then 07:00 on Sunday, and 02:50 on Saturday (i.e. tomorrow)!
April 18, 2025 at 8:40 PM
writeleighso.bsky.social
Aurora visible from southern England this evening. I can see the green glow, but my camera can see more 😃 (handheld 2” shot through window)
On the right is the silhouette of an oak tree and on the left is the silhouette of the corner of my neighbour’s roof. In the middle, the night sky is glowing green low down, with a vertical band of faint red in the centre. The sky is dark above, and a few stars are visible too.
April 16, 2025 at 9:23 PM