upload error message

Hello,
I was in the process of creating a blog after installation and tried to upload an image for the blog and i get the following error:
Unable to create directory /home/bpa/public_html/wp-content/uploads/2009/04. Is its parent directory writable by the server?

I tried creating an uploads folder and no luck, i checked the permissions and they look fine. so now I am stumped, any help will be appreciated.

Morga