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
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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
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
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
I am confused. How did my cat get on your desk?
A view from above, looking down on the back of a (brown and black) tortoiseshell cat (lower centre-left) who is peering into a large cardboard box (top right) that’s lying on its side. The floor around is light brown too (sorry!)
May 23, 2025 at 9:10 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
The back left shoulder of a denim jacket, with a *multitude* of multi-coloured, very finely embroidered, flowers.
May 3, 2025 at 8:57 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
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
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
writeleighso.bsky.social
Happy Springtime!
The background is white cherry blossom and very small young leaves. Towards the right is a close-up of a particular clump of flowers.
April 4, 2025 at 8:44 PM
writeleighso.bsky.social
I am STILL reading "The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop Putting Things Off and Start Getting Stuff Done" by Piers Steel (it's been 5mo now 🙄 ).  
It feels more geared towards work and the workplace (I need it for domestic stuff!), but it's still interesting and useful.

 #AmReading #BookSky
The cover image of "The Procrastination Equation": the background is white, with a bright orange border. The text is all in sans-serif typeface, with the main title in a bold display font ("The" and "Equation" are black; "Procrastination" is orange). The subtitle, "How to stop putting things off and start getting things done") is underneath and smaller (the word "stop" is in red", and "start" is in green". Below that is a green button with the white letters "GO" on it (with a silver surround). The author's name is below that ,in orange, and at the very bottom, in much small black text, it says "The world's leading authority on the science of motivation and procrastination.
March 28, 2025 at 11:00 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
Another example of appalling typesetting – in *vitally* important text:  
• unnecessarily small font size 😕  
• sans-serif typeface 🙁  
• atrociously tracked ☹️   
and to cap it all... 
• badly printed! 😤  

#TypographyMatters #BookSky
The image shows the ingredients' list of a "Mushroom, Leek & Stilton Pie". The words are tiny, very cramped, and pixellated. Its only redeeming feature is that known allergens (milk, wheat, egg, etc.) are in bold.
March 27, 2025 at 5:28 PM
writeleighso.bsky.social
My kind of charity shop!!  
#BookSky #Autism
A set of four grey shelves, one above the other, with books in colour order: the top shelf has red, yellow, and green from left to right. The second shelf has orange and blue. The third shelf has white books, and the bottom one has all black books.
March 26, 2025 at 11:00 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
 @tomgauld.bsky.social

 #Books #Reading #Cartoon
March 25, 2025 at 12:22 PM
writeleighso.bsky.social
One antique crumb-brush and tray 😊
The background is a wooden kitchen worktop, with daylight coming from the right. In the middle is a old wooden crumb-brush (the brush part is curved like a banana, so you more easily scoop up crumbs). The bristles are facing downwards and are resting on its pan – just like a dustpan, but wooden, and with a wooden handle at the back of it, much like you get at one end of a tea tray.
March 25, 2025 at 11:56 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
Shouting to be let in at the window. Note *wide open door behind*
🙄 #CatsOfBlueSky
The background is the view out of our front downstairs window, looking at the side of the garage. Top left is a brick wall, bottom left is the front path, leading to the front door (top right). In the middle of the image is our tortoiseshell cat, standing on the windowsill outside, mouth opened mid-miaow, looking pleadingly up towards the window handle (out of shot, top left).
March 25, 2025 at 9:05 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
Who needs a pot of gold, when you have a cat like Muffin ❤️ 
#Caturday
The background is a white wall top left, a blue towel hanging over a chair-back, top right, and a grey-and-white chequered seat-cover, bottom left. In the middle (and bottom right) of the picture is our tortoiseshell cat (mostly black and ginger in this shot), lying with her head on the left, and her eyes closed. A rainbow of colours is projected (presumably from something hanging in my daughter's bedroom window) right across her face as she sleeps.
March 22, 2025 at 8:37 AM
writeleighso.bsky.social
Up early for a workshop today! 🤩 I have *always* wanted to have a go at making stained glass, and I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to this! 😍  
I'll try and post progress-photos as I go 😃
The background is white with a light-blue border (except at the bottom where it has shades of blue). The main image is split into two: on the left-hand side is a photo of a view looking out to see from a grassy bank. There's a sandy beach leading to a headland in the middle distance, and grass in the foreground. The focus of the image, though, is on two stained-glass panels, about 6-inches wide, and 3-feet high, with horizontal bands of different colours. On the right-hand side of the main image are two more examples of these panels, again with different colours.
March 21, 2025 at 7:35 AM