Thomas Dambo is a Danish artist, trained at Design School Kolding, who since 2014 has built giant troll sculptures from recycled materials as part of his “Trail of a Thousand Trolls” project, starting with “Hector the Protector” in Puerto Rico. Now installed in 16 countries, his trolls are assembled almost entirely from salvaged wood, pallets, and branches, and rather than the menacing figures of Norse folklore, they act as gentle forest guardians, each carrying its own environmental story. Building one is a communal effort, with dozens or hundreds of local volunteers assembling the body on site from donated scrap wood.

Today, Jeanine and I visited all five of his recently completed Rhode Island trolls with our wonderful friends, Lou Ann & Alex, and Stefanie and Sal. We could not have wished for a more perfect summer day for this outing.

To sustain our energy for troll hunting, we paused to hunt for something much smaller and harder to find: quahog clams. From within the John H. Chafee Rome Point Preserve, we hiked to Bissel Cove, where we waded into the shallow water to dig for our late morning meal.

Before joining the group for the clam hunt, I did a little aerial photography to provide a sense of our idyllic location. I managed to collect 15 clams, but five did not meet the minimum size requirement and had to be returned to the water. Jeanine had one of the largest hauls, including several scallops.

Our bounty went straight from the water to the grill, where Alex cooked batch after batch on the portable grill he carried in.

In addition to the clams, we had sausages and Jeanine’s scallops as well as cheese and fruits. Quite the elegant feast after a long hike.