More tree planting

More tree planting

Another good day at Abberton Reservoir helping the Essex Wildlife Trust plant another 300 trees (hawthorn and blackthorn this time). The system got over the shock of all that fresh air, and my nose stopped streaming after an hour or two! A real sense of accomplishment, some much-needed exercise and the feeling we've made a positive contribution in some small way.

Shame about Blues, then, who crashed to a surprise 3-1 defeat against lowly Southend last night. The surprise was merely in the fact they were out thought and outplayed by a supposedly inferior team. Today however we've made Seb Larsson a permanent signing for £1m, and it looks like Matthew Upson is on his way to relegation-threatened West Ham for £7.5m. It would be ironic if they go down and we go up, but this is Birmingham City we're talking about here, so the safest bet is to assume that won't happen...

Upson's loss is a big one, but only in the sense Steve Bruce made a fool of himself by thinking he could block it - had we dealt earlier, we'd have a replacement in, but unless he has a loan signing up his sleeve I suspect we'll be going into the rest of the season with just four centre halves, one of whom hasn't played competitively since early on in the season.