One summer when I was working in Ireland, I filled a notebook with sketches of gates.  These elaborate, curly and twisting, dark wrought-iron thresholds looked so delicate and jewel-like in contrast to the old stone walls that traced the boundaries of the green farmland.  Recently, I went in search of a thicker wire and found a heavy spool of it wrapped in greasy dark brown waxed paper at the hardware store.  The man at the check out counter said it was baling wire, a material used for building and repairing fences and gates.