One is the blue vase she surprised me with as a going-away gift on one of my trips to the United States.

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Researchers have spotted a never-before-seen chemical effect in Vincent Van Gogh's Flowers In A Blue Vase that is dulling the work's vibrant yellows.

BBC: Van Gogh's Flowers In A Blue Vase damage seen in X-rays

The new work was begun during a conservation treatment in 2009, when conservators found that the yellows in Flowers In A Blue Vase - this time from a pigment called cadmium yellow - had turned greyish and cracked.

BBC: Van Gogh's Flowers In A Blue Vase damage seen in X-rays

In her hand was a hand-blown blue glass vase.

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The still life depicts a blue-and-white vase holding a tight bouquet of yellow flowers atop a tablecloth of deep blue and pink.

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To add the layer of grayish blue that distinguishes some of the more furtive lines in "The Sisters, " I tucked in some icy blue tweedia and chose a chalky gray vase.

WSJ: A Flower Arrangement Inspired by Art

And with the FA Cup final between Chelsea and Portsmouth to be played at the venue on 15 May - as well as three Football League play-off finals, the Blue Square Premier play-off final, FA Trophy and FA Vase finals and England's World Cup warm-up match against Mexico during the month - Wembley Stadium announced on Sunday that work had begun on a new surface.

BBC: Wembley pitch will be relaid indefinitely up to 2023