Lioba, please forgive me.
Sometimes I'm not so good at explaining things. The avatar is the photo that each of us use for our profile, such as the lovely (hosta?) plant that you show on your profile page and that shows up in each of your postings here on site:
http://garden.org/users/profil... For my avatar photo, I currently have my puppy's picture:
http://garden.org/users/profil...
When you click on a members name or their little avatar photo, it will take you to their home/profile page.